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CORPUS  CHRISTI  PAGEANTS 
IN  ENGLAND 


Corpus  Christi 
Pageants 


IN 


ENGLAND 


By 


M.    LYLE  SPENCER,    PH.  D. 

Professor  of  Rhetoric 

Lawrence  College 


NEW   YORK 

THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  COMPANY 
1911 


Copyright  1911,   by 
THE    BAKER    &    TAYLOR    COMPANY 


Camelot  Press,  444-446  Pearl  St.,  New  York. 


To 

LOIS  HILL  SPENCER 


242396 


PREFACE 

The  pleasantest  part  of  an  otherwise  very- 
pleasant  task  is  an  opportunity  to  express  my 
gratitude  to  Mr.  Samuel  Moore  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity, to  Mr.  T.  A.  Knott  of  the  University  of 
Chicago,  and  to  Professor  John  M.  Manly  for 
their  invaluable  assistance  in  the  preparation  of 
this  book.  Much  of  the  material  contained  in 
chapter  five  was  suggested  to  me,  either  wholly 
or  in  part,  by  Mr.  Moore,  who  was  so  generous 
as  to  lend  me  all  his  notes  and  a  most  valuable 
paper  that  he  had  written  on  the  conventions  of 
the  cyclic  drama.  To  Mr.  Knott  I  am  greatly  in- 
debted for  a  careful  perusal  of  the  entire  book 
and  for  much  advice  and  friendly  criticism.  And 
to  Professor  Manly  I  am  grateful  for  the  first 
suggestion  of  the  work,  for  full  discussions  of  the 
book  in  its  various  stages,  and  for  a  most  gen- 
erous loan  of  all  his  notes  on  the  early  drama. 
Without  the  help  of  Mr.  Moore,  Mr.  Knott,  and 
Professor  Manly  this  volume  would  not  have 
been  possible,  and  I  avail  myself  of  this  oppor- 
tunity to  express  my  deep  appreciation  to  them 
for  their  assistance  and  friendly  counsel. 

M.  L.  S. 
Spartanburg,  S.  C, 

June,  1911. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Introductory i 

11.  Preparation  for  the  Pageants     .     .  19 

III.  The  Corpus   Christi   Procession     .  61 

IV.  The  Pageants 83 

V.  Corpus  Christi  Staging     .     .     .     .  107 

VI.  Conventions  of  the  Corpus  Christi 

Stage     • 168 

VII.  The  Actors  and  their  Costumes     .  209 

VIII.  The  Passing  of  the  Pageants     .     .  2^8 


CORPUS  CHRISTI  PAGEANTS 
IN  ENGLAND 


INTRODUCTORY 

The  Early  Drama.  One  of  the  most  fruitful 
fields  of  inquiry  in  early  English  literature  in 
recent  years  has  been  that  concerning  the  origin 
and  development  of  the  religious  drama.  Scholars 
have  unearthed  much  about  the  language  of  the 
plays,  about  their  sources,  about  dramatic  condi- 
tions prior  to  the  first  regular  theatres,  and  about 
the  manners  and  the  customs  of  the  people  in  those 
early  times.  Interesting  information  of  all  sorts 
has  been  brought  to  light  during  the  course  of  this 
continued  investigation,  information  that  has 
been  of  value,  not  only  to  the  special  student  of 
the  medieval  English  stage,  but  to  every  Shak- 
spere  lover  and  every  student  of  the  later  drama, 
in  that  it  reveals  the  plays  and  the  pageants  in 
which  his  forefathers  before  the  days  of  the  first 
regular  theatres  used  to  find  amusement  and  reli- 
gious instruction.  From  these  early  plays  we 
have  learned  how  the  modern  stage  has  grown 
out  of  the  old  Catholic  church  service  and  how 

1 


2         CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

we  have  developed  our  modern  mixtures  of 
tragedy  in  the  midst  of  comedy,  of  comedy 
mingled  v^rith  tragedy,  and  that  union  of  pathos 
and  humor  which  has  been  so  prominent  in  our 
drama  since  the  days  of  Shakspere. 

Purpose.  Some  parts  of  the  subject,  however, 
have  not  been  investigated  with  as  much  thor- 
oughness and  completeness  as  others.  One  field 
not  yet  adequately  understood  is  that  which  in- 
cludes the  decorations,  the  management,  and  the 
general  stage  business  of  the  Corpus  Christi 
pageants.  Everybody  has  known  for  a  long 
time,  of  course,  that  the  Corpus  Christi  cars 
often  consisted  of  three  important  parts,  an 
upper  stage,  a  lower  stage,  and  another  indef- 
inite part  somewhere  which  was  used  to  repre- 
sent hell,  but  we  have  not  known  definitely  al- 
ways how  these  stages  were  relatively  situated  nor 
what  their  exact  relation  to  each  other  was.  Every- 
body has  known,  too,  that  the  stages  were  often 
gorgeously  decorated  and  were  well  furnished 
with  properties  and  mechanical  devices;  but  the 
precise  use  of  these  stages,  the  multiple  decora- 
tions, the  easy  shift  of  scenes,  and  the  exact 
methods  of  representation  have  never  been 
definitely  disclosed.  And  while  much  has  been 
known  about  dramatic  methods  at  Chester, 
somewhat  more,  probably,  about  those  at  York, 
and  still  more  perhaps  about  those  at  Coventry, 
still  the  general  relation  to  each  other  of  all  the 


INTRODUCTORY  3 

Corpus  Christi  stages  in  the  different  towns  of 
England  has  not  yet  been  determined.     It  is  the 
purpose  of  this  study  to  summarize  the  work 
that  has  already  been  done  on  this  subject  and 
to  define  more  clearly  if  possible  the  problems 
which  have  been  touched  upon  but  which  have 
not    yet    been    worked    out    thoroughly.     This 
volume,  then,  will  concern  itself  with  the  cus- 
toms governing  the  production  of  the  pageants, 
I  with  the  relations  of  the  different  parts  of  the 
I  stage  to  each  other,  with  the  principles  of  dec- 
!  oration  and  the  use  of  propertiets,  and  with  the 
general  subject  of  the  actors  and  their  costumes. 
Hindrances.     In    beginning    a    study    of    the 
Corpus  Christi  pageants  in  England,  however,  it 
is  first  and  most  of  all  regrettable  that  no  his- 
torical account  of  their  development  is  possible, 
because  of  the  loss  of  so  many  of  the  original 
!  records  of  this  celebrated  English  festival.     Ex- 
1  cept  for  the  records  contained  in  Thomas  Sharp's 
I  Dissertation  on  the  Pageants  or  Dramatic  Mys- 
teries Anciently  performed  at   Coventry,   by   the 
Trading  Companies  of  that  City  (1825)  and  those 
in  his  edition  for  the  Abbotsford  Club  of  The  Pre- 
sentation  in  the  Temple,  A  Pageant,  as  originally 
represented   by   the   Corporation   of    Weavers  in 
Coventry   (1836),  the  majority  of  our  most  im- 
portant original  documents,  and  even  what  copies 
may  have  existed,  seem  to  have  been  lost.    Sharp's 
plan  in  both  of  these  volumes  was  to  publish  any 


4         CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

interesting  details  that  might  be  illustrative  of 
*'  the  vehicle,  characters,  and  dresses  of  the  actors  " 
in  the  **  pageants  or  dramatic  mysteries  ",  a  method 
which  makes  his  books  still  a  mine  of  valuable  in- 
formation to  students  of  the  religious  drama.  But 
further  than  that,  for  plays  other  than  those  at 
Coventry,  investigators  in  recent  years  have  been 
compelled  to  rely  for  all  their  information  on  scat- 
tered fragments  of  pieced-together  infoimation 
gathered  from  imperfect  and  incomplete  accounts 
of  the  city  leet  books,  of  the  English  trading  guilds, 
and  from  other  similar  sources.  And  even  in  the 
case  of  the  Coventry  plays  students  of  to-day  are 
hampered  by  the  fact  that  almost  all  of  Sharp's 
sources  were  lost  in  the  fire  which  destroyed  the 
Free  Reference  Library  at  Birmingham  in  1879, 
and  that  the  Coventry  play-book  itself  with  all  the 
cycle  of  plays  has  not  yet  been  discovered,  though 
two  of  its  scenes,  the  Nativity  and  Slaughter  of  the 
Innocents  and  the  Presentation  in  the  Temple,  have 
survived  separately. 

Sources  of  Information.  On  the  other  hand, 
although  the  loss  of  so  many  records  has  rendered 
impossible  any  chronological  study  of  the  plays, 
one  should  add  that  the  work  of  the  student  has 
been  immensely  lightened  by  the  many  excellent 
reprints  and  studies  of  earlier  investigators  in  this 
field,  such  as  Davies,  Morris,  Furnivall,  Manly, 
Smith,  Leach,  Chambers,  Bates,  Craig,  and  others. 
Several  of  these  scholars,  it  is  true,  did  not  have 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

the  Corpus  Christi  pageants  particularly  in  view 
in. their  work,  but  their  contributions  are  neverthe- 
less most  valuable.  Davies's  Extracts  from  the 
Municipal  Records  of  the  City  of  York  (1843),  ^^^ 
example,  while  purposing  particularly  "  to  throw 
light  upon  the  condition  of  the  city  [of  York],  and 
the  manners,  customs,  language,  and  domestic 
habits  and  circumstances  of  its  inhabitants  ",  fur- 
nishes us  with  much  valuable  material  on  the 
Corpus  Christi  festival  in  that  city.  In  the  same 
way  Morris's  interest  in  his  Chester  during  the 
Plantagenet  and  Tudor  Reigns  was  general  rather 
than  specific,  and  he  unfortunately  devoted  only  ten 
pages  to  the  "  Whitson  Plaies  ",  yet  his  selections 
from  the  original  MSS  are  remarkably  concise  and 
definite  and  are  peculiarly  well  adapted  to  illustrat- 
ing the  staging  of  the  pageants.  In  contrast  to 
these.  Dr.  Furnivall  was  always  especially  inter- 
ested in  the  drama  and  has  put  us  under  many 
obligations  to  him  for  his  reprint  of  the  Rogers 
"  Breauarye "  of  Chester  and  for  many  other 
valuable  helps  in  the  study  of  Corpus  Christi  stage 
presentation.  Likewise,  Miss  L.  T.  Smith  in  the 
introduction  to  her  edition  of  the  York  Mystery 
Plays,  and  elsewhere,  has  given  many  helpful  sug- 
gestions, and  by  publishing  the  text  of  the  York 
plays  has  made  that  cycle  accessible  for  the  first 
time.  More  recently  Mr.  A.  F.  Leach  has  made 
public  many  of  the  records  of  Beverley  in  his 
Beverley  Town  Documents  and  has  added  much 


I 


6         CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

other  new  and  useful  information  in  his  contribu- 
tion to  the  Furnivall  Miscellany.  Most  of  all,  pos- 
sibly, students  of  the  early  drama  are  indebted  to 
Mr.  E.  K.  Chambers  for  the  exhaustive,  scholarly, 
and  authoritative  report  of  his  investigations  in  the 
two  volumes  of  his  Mediaeval  Stage.  The  chap- 
ters on  "  Guild  Plays  and  Parish  Plays "  and 
"Moralities,  Puppet-plays,  Pageants  "  in  the  second 
volume,  and  the  various  appendices,  are  invaluable 
to  students  of  the  Corpus  Christi  drama.  Miss 
Bates  also  has  given  an  interesting  account  of  the 
pageants  in  her  little  volume  on  the  English  Reli- 
gious Drama,  and  Dr.  Craig  in  his  Two  Coventry 
Corpus  Christi  Plays  has  made  the  work  of  Sharp, 
Jeaffreson,  and  others  more  accessible  than  before, 
besides  furnishing  in  his  introduction  much  new 
material  about  the  plays.  And  so  there  are  others 
whom  lack  of  space  forbids  mentioning  here,  but 
to  whom  thanks  are  due  for  their  excellent  work 
in  making  the  medieval  material  and  records  avail- 
able and  in  otherwise  removing  hindrances  from 
the  path  of  later  students. 

Confusion  of  Terms.  In  spite  of  the  investi- 
gations of  these  scholars,  however,  there  remains 
one  serious  difficulty  that  every  student  must  en- 
counter in  any  consistent  study  of  the  medieval 
stage,  the  almost  bewildering  confusion  in  the  use 
of  terms,  a  confusion  so  great  that  it  would  seem 
as  if  writers  of  that  time  were  accustomed  to  class 
as  a  **  play  "  anything  from  a  morris  dance  to  a 


INTRODUCTORY  7 

morality.  Thus  when  one  reads  in  the  records  of 
the  corporation  of  Plymouth  that  the  craft  of 
tailors  "  shall  make  or  cause  to  be  made  at  the  cost 
and  charge  of  the  said  crafte  a  pagent  yerely  unto 
Corpus  Christi  Ilde  for  the  welthe  and  profitt  of 
the  said  Ilde  on  Corpus  Christi  day;  and  the  same 
they  shall  kepe  and  maynteyn  for  euer  at  their 
coste  and  charge,  for  the  which  pagent  the  said 
bretherdyn  may  be  prayed  for  euer  in  the  said 
Ilde  ",  it  is  by  no  means  clear  from  such  a  leet  alone 
whether  a  play  or  a  pageant-car  in  the  Corpus 
Christi  procession  was  required  of  the  tailors;  for 
(Sie  terms  "  pageant "  and  "  play  "  at  that  time  were 
used  interchangeably.  Indeed  we  find  the  word 
"  pageant "  in  the  writings  of  this  time  meaning  a 
playing  place,  a  stage,  a  character,  an  episode,  a 
scene,  or  even  a  mechanical  device./  Wiclif  in  his 
Ave  Maria  uses  it  in  the  sense  of  "  character " 
when  he  says  "  he  that  kan  best  pleie  a  pagyn  of 
the  deuyl,  syngynge  songis  of  lecherie,  of  batailis 
and  of  lesyngis  ...  is  holden  most  merie  mon  ". 
And  Chambers^  quotes  a  passage  from  a  writer 
of  the  early  sixteenth  century  which  shows  the 
absolute  confusion  of  the  word :  "  Alexander 
played  a  payante  more  worthy  to  be  wondred  vpon 
for  his  rasshe  aduenture  than  for  his  manhede.  .  .  . 
There  were  v  coursis  in  the  feest  and  as  many 
paiantis  in  the  pley.  I  wyll  haue  made  v  stags  o^ 
bouthis  in  this  playe   (scenas).     1  wolde  haue  a 

^Mediaeval  Stage,  ii.  137  n. 


8         CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

place  in  the  middyl  of  the  pley  (orchestra)  that  I 
myght  se  euery  paiaunt.  Of  all  the  crafty  and 
subtyle  paiantis  and  pecis  of  warke  made  by 
mannys  wyt,  to  go  or  moue  by  them  selfe,  the 
clocke  is  one  of  the  beste  ".  Nor  does  the  confu- 
sion stop  with  the  word  "  pageant ".  We  find 
"  ministrallis "  meaning  tumblers  and  musicians, 
histriones  meaning  jugglers,  bear- wards,  or  musi- 
cians, as  well  as  actors,  and  the  same  confusion  in 
the  terms  ludiis,  ludentes,  plays,  players,  etc.  The 
result  is  that  the  student  of  this  period  cannot  trust 
the  nomenclature  of  the  early  scribes,  nor  of  many 
later  writers,  such  as  Warton,  Collier,  or  even 
Ward,  but  must  slowly  and  laboriously  collect  his 
own  data,  make  his  own  classifications,  and 
formulate  his  own  definitions  as  his  conception  of 
medieval  life  becomes  clearer. 

"  Corpus  Christi  Plays."  It  was  for  this 
reason,  on  account  of  the  unscientific  tendency  of 
the  medievalists  to  use  terms  inexactly  and  inac- 
curately, that  the  name,  Corpus  Christi,  came  to  be 
so  all-inclusive  as  it  did.  For  example,  at  Lincoln 
the  annual  pageants  were  given  on  St,  Anne's  day, 
July  26,  yet  they  are  called  Corpus  Christi  plays; 
and  at  Chester  and  Norwich  they  were  produced  at 
Whitsuntide  as  well  as  during  Corpus  Christi  week, 
and  yet  were  always  known  as   Corpus   Christi. 

This  application  of  the  term  "  Corpus  Christi 
plays  "  to  plays  produced  on  other  occasions  seems 
to  have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  the  pageants  were 


INTRODUCTORY  9 

originally  given  during  Corpus  Christi  week.  Be- 
cause of  the  conflict  between  the  holiday  and  the 
spiritual  elements  in  the  festival,  however,  the 
plays  had  to  be  transferred  from  Corpus  Christi 
week  to  other  dates,  where,  in  spite  of  the  change 
of  time  for  representation,  they  still  retained  their 
original  name.  That  this  is  the  most  probable  ex- 
planation may  be  inferred  from  the  contest  which 
went  on  at  York  in  1426  when  Friar  William 
Melton  "  recommended  the  Corpus  Xpi  play  to  the 
people,  afliirming  that  it  was  good  in  itself  and 
highly  praiseworthy;  yet  he  said  that  the  citizens 
and  others,  strangers  visiting  the  city  at  the  festival 
not  for  the  play  alone,  joined  in  revellings, 
drunkenness,  clamour,  singing,  and  other  impro- 
prieties, little  regarding  the  divine  offices  of  the 
day;  and  it  was  to  be  lamented  that  they  conse- 
quently lost  the  benefit  of  the  indulgences  gra- 
ciously conceded  by  Pope  Urban  IV.  to  those  who 
duly  attended  the  religious  services  appointed  by 
the  canons :  and  therefore  to  the  said  Friar  William 
it  seemed  profitable,  and  to  this  he  persuaded  the 
people  of  the  city,  that  the  play  should  be  on  one 
day  and  the  procession  on  another,  so  that  the 
people  might  attend  divine  service  at  the  churches 
and  receive  the  benefit  of  the  promised  indul- 
gences." ^  And  as  a  result  of  the  Friar's  exhorta- 
tions the  plays  were  presented  on  Wednesday,  the 
vigil  of  the  feast,  while  the  procession  was  kept 
2  Davics,  York  Records,  p.  243. 


10       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

for  the  festival  itself.  It  was  a  similar  move,  too, 
apparently,  which  was  made  later  at  Chester  some- 
time between  1471  and  1520,  when  the  pageants 
were  changed  from  Corpus  Christi  to  Whitsun 
week  and  yet  continued  to  be  known  by  their  old 
name.  Hence  it  seems  fair  to  say  that  there  were 
no  material  differences  among  these  religious  pro- 
cessional plays  at  any  of  the  midsummer  festivals ; 
and  for  this  reason  references  for  methods  of  pre- 
sentation will  be  made  in  this  volume  alike  to 
biblical  cyclical  plays  at  Whitsuntide,  in  Corpus 
Christi  week,  on  St.  Anne's  day,  or  during  any  of 
the  regular  midsummer  festival  seasons. 

The  Corpus  Christi  Procession.  The  most 
splendid  of  all  the  church  celebrations  in  England 
was  the  Corpus  Christi  festival,  which  was  insti- 
tuted by  Pope  Urban  IV  in  1264  in  honor  of  the 
transubstantiated  sacrament  of  the  eucharist.  Its 
origin,  we  are  told,  was  in  an  alleged  vision  of  a 
Flemish  nun,  Juliana,  of  the  city  of  Liege.  The 
first  Thursday  after  Trinity  Sunday  was  appointed 
for  the  day  of  the  feast  by  Pope  Urban,  but  his 
death  the  same  year  caused  the  bull  to  remain  in- 
operative until  the  time  of  Pope  Clement  V,  when 
the  festival  was  finally  established  at  the  Council  of 
Vienna  as  a  time  of  universal  celebration.  St. 
Thomas  Aquinas  was  appointed  to  draw  up  the 
holy  office,  which  consisted  of  hymns,  antiphons, 
etc.  taken  from  the  symbolical  parts  of  the  Old 
Testament.     The  leading  feature  of  the  service  was 


INTRODUCTORY  11 

the  great  procession  in  imitation  of  the  solemn 
march  of  the  ark  under  the  ancient  law.  In  this 
the  priests  and  the  people  ceremoniously  joined 
with  torches,  banners,  and  music,  and  in  all  their 
holiday  regalia,  to  escort  the  host  through  the 
streets  of  the  city  and  to  beseech  God  "  that  he 
would  please  to  make  all  the  Congregation  present 
taste  efficaciously  the  Fruits  of  our  Saviour's  Re- 
surrection, of  whose  Passion  this  Sacrament  is  a 
Commemoration  ".^ 

Growth  of  the  Festival.  Of  the  growth  and 
spread  of  the  Corpus  Christi^east  on  the  continent 
and  in  England  we  have  very  little  authentic  in- 
formation./ It  is  not  even  known  when  the  proces- 
sion was  first  introduced  into  England.'  Thomas 
Sprott  in  his  Chronicles  records  that  the  festival 
was  a  confirmed  institution  by  the  year  t3J§»  ^^^ 
it  may  be  that  during  the  interval  between  13  ii  and 
13 18  it  had  been  carried  from  Rome  to  other  parts 
of  the  Christian  world,  although  of  this  we  have  no 
authentic  record.  The  earliest  mention  of  the  pro- 
cession in  England  which  the  present  writer  has 
been  able  to  find  is  in  1325,  in  a  copy  of  the  Guild 
charter  of  Ipswich,  still  extant  in  the  local  Domes- 
day Book.  <  Other  dates,  more  uncertain,  can  be 
judged  only  approximately  from  the  foundation  of 
the  Corpus  Christi  guilds  in  the  various  towns, 
1327  at  London,  1348  at  Coventry,  1408  at  York, 
etc.    And  even  then  our  conclusions  are  necessa- 

^  Picart,  Ceremonies  and  Religious  Customs,  ii.  43. 


12       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

rily  little  more  than  inferences,  especially  in  the 
case  of  the  later  Corpus  Christi  guilds,  which  seem 
to  have  been  founded  to  preserve  the  splendor  of 
the  event  after  popular  interest  had  turned  from 
the  procession  to  the  plays. 

Plays  at  Corpus  Christi.  Likewise  the  same 
lack  of  information  exists  in  regard  to  the  union 
of  the  pageants  and  the  procession.  It  is  not 
known  when  the  great  cycles  of  religious  plays 
came  to  center  around  Corpus  Christi  day  in  Eng- 
land, though  they  would  seem  to  have  got  there 
within  a  short  time  after  the  procession  reached 
England.  The  earliest  report  of  Corpus  Christi 
plays  in  any  town  in  England  ascribes  them  to 
Chester  in  1327.  This  report,  however,  cannot  be 
wholly  relied  upon.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  based 
entirely  upon  tradition.  And  in  the  second,  it  is 
first  found  in  a  document  dated  1544,  headed  "  The 
proclamation  for  the  Plaies,  newly  made  by  Wil- 
liam Newhall,  clarke  of  the  Pentice,  the  first  yere  of 
his  entre".^  In  this  proclamation  Newhall  states 
that  there  were  certain  "  diverse  stories  of  the  bible, 
begynnyng  with  the  creacon  and  fall  of  Lucifer, 
and  [ending  with  the  general]  jugement  of  the 
World  "  which  were  devised  into  a  play  by  a  Sir 
"  Henry  Fraunces,  somtyme  monk  of  this  dissolved 
monastery,  who  obtayned  and  gate  of  Clement, 
then  beyng  [bushop  of  Rome,  a  thousand]  daies  of 
pardon,  and  of  the  Busshop  of  Chester  at  that 
time,  beyng  xlti  daies  of  pardon  graunted  from 


INTRODUCTORY  13 

thensforth  to  every  person  resortyng  in  pecible 
maner  with  good  devocon  to  here  and  se  the  sayd 
[plaies]  from  tyme  to  tyme  as  oft  as  they  shalbe 
plaied  within  this  Citie  [and  that  every  person  dis- 
turbing the  same  plaies  in  any  manner  wise  to  he 
accursed  by  thauctoritie  of  the  said  Pope  Clement 
bulls  unto  such  tyme  as  he  or  they  be  absolved  ther- 
of  {erased)] y  which  plaies  were  devised  to  the  hon- 
our of  God  by  John  Arneway,  then  maire  of  this 
Citie  of  Chester,  and  his  brethren,  and  hoU  comin- 
alty  therof  to  be  brought  forthe,  declared  and  plead 
at  the  costs  and  charges  of  the  craftsmen  and  occu- 
pacons  of  the  said  Citie,  whiche  hitherunto  have 
frome  tyme  to  tyme  used  and  performed  the  same 
accordingly."  *  This  is  the  first  mention  of  the 
tradition  at  Chester,  though  it  is  repeated  from 
time  to  time  during  the  fifteenth,  sixteenth,  and 
seventeenth  centuries.  And  Chambers  in  his 
Mediaeval  Stage  ^  has  shown  a  considerable  degree 
of  probability  that  it  had  a  basis  in  fact. 

Earliest  Records.  But  with  the  exception  of 
this  early  fourteenth  century  tradition  of  plays  at 
Chester,  it^is  only  after  scores  of  years,  in  some 
cases  hundreds,  that  one  is  able  to  find  authentic 
record  of  actual  Corpus  Christi  plays  in  English 
towns.    The  first  authentic  reference  to  plays  is  in 

*  Morris,  Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and  Tudor 
Reigns,  pp.  317-18.  In  other  documents  of  the  same  and 
later  dates  these  plays  are  definitely  called  Corpus  Christi 
plays.    Cf.  Chambers,  ii.  349  ff» 

« ii.  pp.  348-52. 


14       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

1377  at  Beverley,  where  in  1390  they  were  again 
spoken  of  as  an  "  ancient  custom  ",  when  the  order 
for  the  crafts  to  produce  their  pageants  at  Corpus 
Christi  was  entered  in  the  Great  Guild  Book. 
York  comes  next  with  its  first  record  of  the  plays 
in  1378,  when  the  bakers  were  fined  and  a  part  of 
their  payment  given  a  la  pagine  des  ditz  Pestours 
de  cor  pore  cristi.  Then  come  in  the  order  of  their 
earliest  extant  records:  Coventry,  1392;  New- 
castle-on-Tyne,  1426-7 ;  Salisbury,  1461 ;  Chester, 
1462;  Worcester,  1467;  Lincoln,  1471-2;  Canter- 
bury, 1491 ;  Ipswich,  1504;  and  so  on. 

Popularity  of  the  Plays.  Thus  something 
may  be  seen  of  the  fragmentary  nature  of  our 
records  of  the  Corpus  Christi  stage  and  of  the  great 
difficulty  in  the  way  of  any  connected  account  of 
the  plays.  Yet,  fortunately,  in  the  midst  of  such 
meagre  bits  of  information,  the  student  has  as  his 
aid  in  gaining  a  clearer  conception  of  these  pageants 
the  fact  that  the  Corpus  Christi  plays  were  popular 
for  so  long  and  that  these  bits  of  existing  informa- 
tion, fragmentary  and  disconnected  though  they  be, 
are  still  numerous  enough  to  furnish  a  compara- 
tively adequate  view  of  the  plays  as  a  whole.  Had 
the  plays  been  less  favored  among  the  people  of 
that  day  we  should  doubtlessly  have  been  more  in 
the  dark  than  we  are  now;  but  that  they  were 
immensely  popular  among  all  classes  is  attested  by 
the  personnel  of  the  audiences  present  and  by  the 
more  than  two  hundred  years  of  favored  patronage 
which  they  received  from  the  English  people. 


INTRODUCTORY  15 

Yet,  rather  oddly,  the  records  that  have  come 
down  to  us  do  not  point  with  any  degree  of  cer- 
tainty to  more  than  about  twenty-five  towns  in 
which  plays  of  the  Corpus  Christi  type  were  cer- 
tainly presented.  And  in  all  of  these  where  the 
texts  of  the  plays  have  come  down  to  us  it  has  been 
shown  that  the  cycles  were  more  or  less  intimately 
connected  with  each  other.  For  instance,  a  high 
degree  of  probability  has  been  shown  that  the  Ches- 
ter Abraham  and  Isaac  was  derived  from  the  same 
source  as  the  play  of  that  name  in  the  Brome  MS.® 
It  is  certain  that  they  are  connected.  Likewise  it 
has  been  proved  that  the  Chester  plays  were  in- 
fluenced by  the  York  cycle,^  which  also  furnished 
some  four  or  five  plays  to  the  Towneley  series. 
And  the  Coventry  pageants  have  been  shown  to  be 
closely  connected  with  those  of  York,  Chester,  and 
Towneley.  And  in  the  same  way  it  may  be  sup- 
posed that  similar  influences  and  connections  could 
be  established  among  the  remaining  craft  cycles  if 
the  plays  of  Beverley,  of  Ipswich,  of  Lincoln,  Perth, 
Pontefract,  Preston,  Worcester,  and  the  other 
towns  were  extant.  Thus  it  seems  that  the  Corpus 
Christi  plays  did  not  have  so  much  a  widespread 
vogue  as  an  immense  popularity  and  patronage  in 

•  Pollard,  English  Miracle  Plays,  Moralities  and  Inter- 
ludes, pp.  184-5;  Hohlfeld  in  Modern  Language  Notes,  v. 
222-38.  Professor  Manly  holds  that  the  Brome  play  was 
derived  from  the  Chester  pageant. 

7  Hohlfeld  in  Anglic,  xi.  260  ff.;  Davidson,  Studies  in  the 
English  Mystery  Plays,  130  ff. 


16        CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

the  comparatively  small  number  of  towns  where 
they  were  presented. 

Religious  Purposes.  The  popularity  and  the 
persistence  of  the  Corpus  Christi  plays  in  England 
was  due  largely  to  the  fact  that  they  were  a  direct 
exponent  of  the  thought,  feeling,  and  religious  atti- 
tude of  the  times ;  and  their  purpose,  though  often 
perhaps  not  unmingled  with  definite  economic  ex- 
pectations, was  always  a  serious  religious  one.  The 
cutlers  and  braziers  of  Beverley,  for  instance,  un- 
dertook their  pageant  in  1475  "  ^^  honour  of  God 
the  Father  Almighty,  and  the  most  glorious  Virgin 
Mary,  and  to  the  honour  of  the  glorious  confessor 
St.  John  of  Beverley,  and  All  Saints  ".  Even  the 
fraternities  of  laboring  men  claimed  to  base  their 
unions  "  in  the  honor  of  the  blyssed  Trinitie  and  of 
the  Feaste  of  Corporis  Christi  and  of  the  blyssed 
and  holy  confessor  Saynt  John  of  Beverley  and  of 
all  saynts  in  heven  ".  And  because  the  day  was  so 
sacred  and  the  plays  so  much  to  the  advancement 
of  Christian  living,  therefore  in  141 1  the  Keepers 
of  the  same  town  enacted  "  that  every  yerr  for- 
ever .  .  .  the  pageant  of  the  play  of  Corpus  Christi 
which  they  were  accustomed  to  play"  should  be 
given.  Beverley,  too,  was  not  at  all  by  itself;  its 
neighbor  towns  throughout  England  were  equally 
serious. 

Commercial  Profit.  Such  was  the  early  atti- 
tude of  the  towns  and  their  citizens  toward  the 
plays.     But  little  by  little  as  the  years  went  by  the 


INTRODUCTORY  17 

production  of  the  pageants  came  to  be  urged  more 
and  more  for  the  sake  of  personal  amusement  and 
the  individual  commercial  profit  of  the  fortunate 
cities  that  possessed  plays.  Hence  we  are  not  sur- 
prised to  find  the  mercers'  guild  at  Shrewsbury 
imposing  a  fine  of  I2d.  on  any  of  their  brethren 
who  might  '*  happen  to  ride  or  goe  to  Coventre 
Faire  or  elleswhere  out  of  the  town  of  Shrewes- 
burye  to  by  or  sell".®  Other  towns  were  recogniz- 
ing the  advantages  of  the  pageants  from  a  busi- 
ness standpoint.  Sir  William  Dugdale,  too,  writes 
in  his  History  of  Warwickshire  that  he  was  '  told 
by  some  old  people,  who  in  their  younger  years 
were  eye-witnesses  of  these  Pageants  so  acted, 
that  the  yearly  confluence  of  people  to  see  that 
shew  was  extraordinary  great,  and  yielded  no 
small  advantage  to  this  City  [Coventry]'.®  Hence 
by  the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  century  we  are 
not  surprised  to  find  the  plays  at  Worcester  given 
"  to  the  worshippe  of  god  and  profite  and  encrese 
of  the  seid  cite,  and  also  alle  the  Craftis  that  ben 
contributory  to  the  same  ",  where  the  "  profite  and 
encrese  of  the  seid  cite,  and  also  alle  the  Craftis  " 
is  emphasized  much  more  emphatically  than  "  the 
worshippe  of  god  ".  This  was  the  later  attitude, 
and  in  it  may  be  found  in  great  measure  the  cause 
of  the  ultimate  decay  of  the  plays.  The  religious 
interest  of  the  people  had  changed  and  the  whole 

^Transactions  of  the  Shropshire  Arch.  Soc,  viii.  273; 
Chambers,  Mediaeval  Stage,  ii.  395. 
8  Quoted  in  Sharp,  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  5. 


18       CORPUS   CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

matter  of  expense  for  the  pageants  was  on  "  the 
poor  commoners  ",  who,  as  the  mayor  of  Coventry 
wrote  to  Thomas  Cromwell  in  1539,  "were  at 
such  expense  with  their  plays  and  pageants  that 
they  fared  the  worse  all  the  year  after  ".^*  But 
more  of  this  part  of  the  subject  later. 

10  Chambers,  Mediaeval  Stage,  ii.  358. 


II 

PREPARATION  FOR  THE  PAGEANTS 

Introductory.  For  about  two  hundred  years 
after  1325  the  Corpus  Christi  festival  was  perhaps 
the  greatest  pubHc  feast  day  in  England.  To  those 
towns  which  were  fortunate  enough  to  have  plays 
people  flocked  from  all  the  neighboring  villages, 
even  from  far  distant  cities.  And  the  day  was 
passed  with  more  or  less  pleasure,  religion,  and 
rioting  in  all  the  exuberant  splendor  of  a  medieval 
holiday. 

Pageant  Control  by  Religious  Guilds.  But 
for  those  who  had  the  entertainment  of  so  many 
visitors  the  day  was  not  filled  with  such  unalloyed 
enjoyment;  for  the  whole  procession  and  all  the 
pageants  had  to  be  arranged  and  planned  months 
in  advance.  In  arranging  for  the  festival  the  gen- 
eral rule  was  for  the  religious  guilds  to  take  charge 
of  the  church  procession  alone  and  the  trades  crafts 
to  look  after  the  plays.  But  such  was  not  always 
the  case  by  any  means.  On  the  contrary,  we  find 
"  a  play  sett  forth  by  the  clergye  "  advertised  in  the 

19 


20       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

banes  to  the  Chester  plays,  and  we  hear  of  scenes 
being  added  to  the  regular  cycles  by  the  clergy  and 
other  minor  officials  of  the  parish  churches  of 
Beverley,  Bungay,  and  Salisbury;  while  at  Ip- 
swich and  Lincoln,  and  Norwich  in  its  early  days, 
the  whole  affair  of  both  the  procession  and  the 
pageants  was  entrusted  to  the  oversight  of  the  relig- 
ious guilds.  At  Ipswich,  however,  the  Guild  of 
Corpus  Christi,  which  produced  the  pageants  there, 
was  really  a  reorganization  of  the  old  Guild  Mer- 
chant, which  included  all  the  burgesses  of  the  town 
;/  and  thus  was  practically  identical  with  the  town 
/  corporation.  The  same  might  also  be  said  of  the 
St.  Anne's  Guild  at  Lincoln  under  the  supervision 
of  which  the  plays  were  produced ;  for  there,  too,  as 
at  Ipswich,  it  was  "agreed  [in  1519]  that  every 
man  and  woman  in  the  city,  being  able,  shall  be 
brother  and  sister  in  St.  Anne's  gild,  a!\nd  pay  yearly 
\j  4c?.,  man  and  wife,  at  the  least  ",^  thus  making  the 
guild  almost  the  same  as  the  town  corporation. 

Control  of  the  Procession  by  Religious  Guilds. 
•  The  usual  thing,  however,  was  for  some  leading 
religious  guild  to  take  charge  of  the  procession  and 
to  exercise  only  supervisory  control  over  the  sub- 
ject matter  of  the  plays.  At  Beverley  and  other 
places  it  was  the  Corpus  Christi  Guild ;  at  Coventry 
it  was  the  Trinity  Guild;  at  Norwich,  St.  Luke's; 
and  at  Canterbury,  St.  Dunstan's.  At  Beverley, 
Coventry,  York,  and  probably  in  the  other  towns, 

1  Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  xiv.  App.  8,  p.  27. 


PREPARATION    FOR   PAGEANTS      21 

the  Corpus  Christi  guilds  were  dedicated  especially 
"  to  the  praise  and  honour  of  the  most  sacred  body 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ",  in  other  words,  to  the 
proper  observance  of  Corpus  Christi  day,  and  the 
members  "  were  bound  to  keep  a  solempne  proces- 
sion, the  sacrament  being  in  a  shryne  borne  in  the 
same  through  the  city  yerely  the  Fryday  after 
Corpus  Christi  day,  and  the  day  after  to  have  a 
solempne  mass  and  dirige  ".^  In  these  cities,  as 
elsewhere,  the  office  of  the  guilds  was  to  arrange 
for  the  procession,  get  men  to  march  in  it,  prepare 
the  surplices  and  the  decorations,  and  make  all  nec- 
essary arrangements  for  the  proper  celebration  of 
the  feast.';  Such  guilds  came  in  time  to  be  power- 
ful factors  in  the  civic  government  of  their  towns. 
We  hear  of  their  owning  and  renting  lands,  of  their 
lending  money  to  the  lords  of  the  realm,  and  of 
their  guild-masters  even  marching  "  with  the  Mair 
for  the  tyme  Being  yn  all  maner  of  Goynges  ". 

Trades  Guilds.  When  the  procession  was 
supervised  by  the  religious  guilds — and  this  was 
by  far  the  more  common,  in  fact,  the  almost  uni- 
versal rule, — the  presentation  of  the  plays  was  en- 
trusted, under  certain  conditions,  to  the  trades 
guilds,  whose  chief  marks  of  separate  and  in- 
dividual existence  as  guilds  seem,  sometimes  at 
least,  to  have  been  only  the  individual  candle  in  the 
church,  a  stated  position  in  the  procession,  and  a 
separate  pageant  in  the  play-cycle.    The  following 

3C)avies,    York  Records,  p.  245.       Cf.  Smith,  English 
Gilds,  pp.  154  and  232. 


22        CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

is  a  concrete  example  from  the  corporation  MSS 
of  Beverley: 

Of  the  orders  and  statutes  of  the  craft  of  Drapers 
newly  founded  by  the  consent  and  request  of  the  said 
Drapers,  and  grant  and  license  of  Adam  Newcombe  [etc.] 
the  twelve  keepers  or  governors  of  the  town  of  Bever- 
ley, with  the  consent  and  assent  of  all  the  aldermen  of 
the  same  town,  present  in  the  Gild  Hall  on  S.  Mark  the 
Evangelist's  day  (25th  April),  A.  D.  1493,  the  under- 
written statutes  and  orders  were  ordered  to  be  registered 
and  for  ever  observed,  in  form  following. 

First,  that  there  shall  be  of  the  same  Drapers  a  brother- 
hood for  the  maintenance  of  a  wooden  castle  to  be  erected 
on  Mondays  in  Rogation  week  yearly  for  ever  next  the 
castle  of  the  Mercers,  when  the  venerable  procession  with 
the  shrine  of  the  most  holy  confessor  of  Christ,  John, 
shall  be  borne  to  the  chapel  of  the  Blessed  Mary  the 
Virgin.  .  .  .  And  that  every  master  of  the  aforesaid 
craft  shall  sit  in  his  best  clothes  and  apparel  in  the  same 
castle  on  the  coming  of  the  procession  aforesaid.  .  .  . 
And  in  the  afternoon  every  brother  in  the  same  clothing 
and  apparel  shall  on  the  said  Monday  ride  with  his 
brethren,  as  the  custom  is,  next  to  the  Mercers,  under  the 
penalty  aforesaid. 

Also  the  said  Drapers  shall  maintain  and  find  among 
them  a  candle  of  wax  before  the  image  of  S.  Michael  the 
Archangel  in  the  church  or  chapel  of  the  Blessed  Mary 
the  Virgin  burning  on  Sundays  and  other  feast-days 
throughout  the  year. 

Moreover  that  the  said  Drapers  shall  play  or  cause  to 
be  played  on  the  feast  of  Corpus  Christi  a  play  called 
'Dooming  Pilate*,  every  year  when  the  community  of 
Beverley  consent  on  S.  Mark's  day  that  the  plays  should 
be  played,  under  the  penalty  therefor  specified  in  the  com- 
mon register,  viz.  40S.3 

8  Leach,  Beverley  Town  Documents,  p.  99. 


PREPARATION    FOR    PAGEANTS      23 

At  other  places  than  Beverley  the  question  of  the 
plays  was  not  made  so  prominent,  but  in  the  towns 
where  plays  were  presented  they  always  had  their 
weight.  And  as  the  separate  light,  pageant,  etc, 
was  the  distinguishing  mark  of  independent  guild- 
ship,  so  the  condition  of  membership  in  a  craft, 
even  of  citizenship  in  the  town,  came  to  be  a  will- 
ingness to  wear  the  required  livery  and  to  con- 
tribute toward  the  pageant  and  other  expenses.  It 
is  on  this  basis  at  Beverley  in  1493  that  we  find  it 
"  ordande  and  statute  that  no  Gentilman,  yeoman 
ne  craftsman  of  the  towne  of  Beverley  be  takyn  to 
worshyp  of  the  towne:  bott  allonely  that  berys 
charge  of  clothyng,  castell  and  pageaunte  within 
the  sayde  towne  ".* 

Contributory  Pageants.  But,  on  account  of 
the  heavy  expense  of  the  peageant,  not  all  the 
guilds  were  able  to  produce  a  separate  scene.  In 
such  cases  a  weaker  craft  became  affiliated  with, 
or  contributory,  or  assistant,  to  a  stronger  one  and 
paid  annually  toward  the  production  of  the  other 
craft's  plays.  Sometimes  the  poorer  company  paid 
a  definite,  stipulated,  annual  amount  toward  the 
other's  pageant,  as  at  Coventry,  where  the  butchers 
paid  annually  "  xvjj".  viijc?.""  toward  the  whittawer's 
pageant,  and  the  cappers  and  fullers  "  xiij^.  iiij^." 
toward  the  girdlers'  "  priste  &  pageant  ".^  At 
other  times  each  member  of  the  contributory  craft 

*  Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  Beverley  MSS,  p.  49. 
^  Coventry  Leet  Book,  pp.  559,  565. 


24       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

paid  a  fixed  amount,  as  for  instance  at  York  in 
15 1 7,  when  "  it  was  agreed  that  for  a  peace  to  be 
hade  betwixt  the  Skynners  and  the  vestment  mak- 
ers that  from  hensforth  the  vestment-makers  shall 
pay  yerly  to  the  bryngyng  furth  of  the  Skynners 
pageant,  euery  maister  viij^Z.  &  euery  jenaman 
injd.,  &  no  more,  to  be  paide  wt  oute  denye,  yerly, 
to  the  chamberlayne  handes  affore  the  fest  of  Wit- 
sonday,  and  then  the  skynners  to  resceyue  it  atte 
chamberlayne  handes,  and  they  not  to  be  charged 
wt  the  repparacons  of  there  pageant  ".*  At  other 
times  still,  as  with  the  Coventry  tilers  and  pinners, 
who  were  contributory  to  the  w rights,  there  was 
no  stated  amount  of  assessment,  but  all  the  mem- 
bers were  "  to  pay  &  here  jerely  after  theire  por- 
cion  as  other  wrightes  doo  towardes  pe  charge  of 
their  pageant  "J 

Responsibility  for  the  Pageants.  In  such 
cases  as  these  the  responsibility  for  the  pageant 
seems  to  have  been  sometimes  removed  from  the 
associate  guild  or  guilds  and  to  have  devolved  en- 
tirely on  the  independent  craft,  which  alone  stood 
charged  with  the  play. — 

1547.— It  is  also  enacted  that  the  Cowpers  of  this  Citie 
shall  frome  hensfurth  be  associat  wt  the  Tilers  &  pynners 
and  here  suche  charges  as  thei  have  doon  in  tymes  past 
And  that  the  Cowpers  shalbe  the  hedd  &  cheffest  of  theim 
&  stand  charged  wt  the  pagyaunt.^ 

«  Smith,  York  Plays,  Introd.,  p.  xl. 

^  Coventry  Leet  Book,  p.  564. 

*  Sharp,  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  il. 


PREPARATION    FOR   PAGEANTS      25 

At  other  times,  however,  there  seems  to  have 
been  no  direct  responsibility  on  any  one  craft,  but, 
rather,  they  all  alike,  under  the  leadership  of  their 
masters,  undertook  the  charge. — 

It  alsoe  appearinge  to  us  that  they  [the  painters  and 
glaziers]  have  beene  tyme  out  of  minde  one  brotherhood 
for  the  costs  and  expenses  of  the  plaie  of  the  Shepperds 
Wach  with  the  Angells  hyme.® 

12  Henry  VIII.  [1520]  *the  Stuards  of  the  Founders 
and  Pewters  agree  with  the  Stewards  of  the  Smiths  to 
here  and  draw  the  Whitson  Playe  and  Corpus  Christi', 
&C.10 

Attitude  toward  the  Plays.  Such  equality  of 
responsibility,  however,  was  the  exception  rather 
than  the  rule,  and  we  find  the  minor  crafts  con- 
tinually chafing  under  the  compulsory  assessments 
for  the  plays  of  other  companies.  In  fact,  in  the 
early  days  of  the  pageants  it  seems  to  have  been 
the  aim  of  every  guild,  if  possible,  to  have  its  own 
livery,  produce  its  own  play,  and  put  itself  on  an 
equality  with  the  other  crafts.f— 

Also  it  is  desyryd  by  the  Drapers  that  thai  shall  be  in 
clothyng  by  thame  selfe;  And  to  have  a  castell  and  a 
pageante  as  other  occupacyons  hafe.  Such  a  pageante  as 
the  xii  Governers  wyll  assigne  thame  to,  upon  payne  of 
forfettour  to  the  comynalte  of  xU.i^ 

^  Morris,    Chester   during   the   Plantagenet   and    Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  316. 
'^^Ibid.,  p.  317. 
i^//«/.  MSS  Comm.,  Beverley  MSS,  p.  49. 


26       CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

From  this  it  must  not  be  inferred  that  the  pro- 
duction of  a  play  was  always  a  pleasure  and  that 
the  companies  were  continually  vying  with  each 
other  in  their  zeal  to  obtain  possession  of  a  pageant. 
This  may  have  been  the  early  attitude,  but  in  time, 
from  being  an  honor,  the  presentation  of  a  play 
became  a  duty,  later  even  a  burden.  Hence,  in  later 
years  we  find  numerous  petitions,  like  that  of  the 
Chester  cappers  in  1523,  praying  the  city  council 
"  to  exonerate  and  discharge  theym  of  and  for  the 
bringinge  forthe  "  ^^  of  their  plays. 

City  Council.  As  in  this  case  at  Chester,  so 
in  other  cities  the  council  was  a  necessary  adjunct 
in  settling  matters  relating  to  the  production  of  the 
pageants.  This  is  what  might  be  expected  too; 
for  from  first  to  last  the  plays  were  necessarily  a 
burden  on  the  crafts,  and,  especially  among  the 
associate  guilds  who  had  no  further  participation 
in  the  pageants  than  the  payment  of  their  annual 
dues,  one  might  expect  to  find  certain  companies 
attempting  to  escape  their  full  duties,  thus  making 
some  sort  of  board  of  arbitration  an  absolute  neces- 
sity. In  the  natural  course  of  change,  too,  the 
wealth  and  power  of  the  different  guilds  was  con- 
tinually varying,  making  it  impossible  for  a  once 
wealthy  but  now  impoverished  company  to  con- 
tinue producing  a  play,  while  perhaps  at  the  same 
time  a  stronger  brotherhood  was  escaping  the  onus 

12  Morris,   Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and   Tudor 
Reigns,  pp.  316-17  «. 


PREPARATION    FOR    PAGEANTS      27 

of  a  pageant  altogether.  And  in  the  matter  of  con- 
tributions, with  the  constant  encroachments  in 
trade  of  one  guild  upon  another,  it  often  became  a 
question  of  serious  doubt  to  what  guild  the  asso- 
ciate crafts  ought  to  be  contributory.  In  such 
cases  the  question  was  taken  to  the  "  fuUwurship- 
fuU  Meir  "  and  his  council,  who  not  only  decided 
such  matters  as  these,  but  aided  in  the  collection  of 
the  "  pagent  pencys "  and  exercised  a  general 
oversight  over  the  presentation  of  the  plays. 

Assessments.  The  pageant  expenses,  how- 
ever, were  almost  altogether  on  the  guilds,  who  be- 
came responsible  for  the  pageant-wagon,  repairing, 
cleaning,  decorating,  and  strewing  it  with  rushes, 
for  the  payment  of  the  actors,  their  costumes  and 
refreshments,  for  the  play-book  and  the  prompter 
— in  fact,  for  practically  everything.  These  ex- 
penses were  met  by  different  methods:  by  fines 
from  the  members,  by  contributions  from  associate 
guilds,  by  special  levies  known  as  "  pagent  pencys  ", 
and  in  various  other  ways.  But  the  individual  as- 
sessments were  never  excessively  high.  At 
Coventry  a  journeyman  weaver  paid  only  four 
pence;  at  Newcastle-on-Tyne  a  tailor's  hireling 
paid  threepence;  and  at  Beverley  a  journeyman 
smith  paid  twopence.  A  master  tailor  at  New- 
castle-on-Tyne paid  seven  pence;  a  master  capper 
at  Beverley  eight  pence  when  there  was  a  play  and 
sixpence  when  there  was  none;  a  master  smith  at 
the  same  place  four  pence  when  there  was  a  play; 


28       CORPUS    CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

and  a  master  cardmaker,  saddler,  mason,  or  painter 
at  Coventry,  twelve  pence.  None  of  these  assess- 
ments, it  will  be  seen,  can  be  considered  very  large 
when  one  remembers  that  the  wages  of  the  average 
journeyman  of  the  time  ranged  from  three  to  five 
pence  a  day  and  those  of  the  master  craftsmen 
from  four  to  nine.  And  in  the  way  of  total  annual 
assessments  the  amount  was  not  usually  large. 
The  total  contribution  of  the  Coventry  butchers  to 
the  whittawers'  pageant  in  1495  "v^^s  only  16^.  Sd., 
while  the  cappers  and  fullers  in  the  same  year  paid 
1 3 J.  4d.  to  the  girdlers,  and  the  skinners  and  bar- 
bers only  6s.  Sd.  to  the  cardmakers.^^ 

Pageant  Expenses.  The  cause  of  such  rela- 
tively small  assessments  on  the  members  and  their 
journeymen  was  the  lessening  of  actual  pageant  ex- 
penses through  money  from  fines  and  other  similar 
sources.  At  Beverley,  for  instance,  a  leet  was 
passed  in  1475-6  that  every  "cardcobler,  cuttiler 
vocatus  an  hawker,  plomars,  furbiorers,  and 
pewtrers  qui  vendunt  aliqua  bona  infra  villam  per 
hawkyng  "  should  contribute  6d.  to  the  pageant  of 
the  cutlers  and  braziers.^*  The  bakers  also  light- 
ened their  expenses  by  enacting  in  1547  that  "  every 
foreigner  that  brings  bread  to  Beverley  to  sell,  shall 
pay  yearly  to  the  Alderman  of  Bakers  toward  the 
charges  of  vesture  and  *  pageand '  of  the  Occupa- 
tion  4d  ".^^    And   in   some   cities   the   companies 

13  Harris,  Coventry  Leet  Book,  pp.  559,  564-5- 
^^Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  Beverley  MSS,  p.  102. 
^^Ibid.,  p.  88. 


PREPARATION    FOR   PAGEANTS      29 

got  help  from  their  brother  guilds  in  neighboring 
towns,  as  at  Coventry,  where  the  tilers  in  1501  re- 
ceived a  contribution  of  5^.  from  the  Stoke  tilers. 

Collection  of  Fines.  The  method  of  collect- 
ing these  duties  and  assessments  was  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  special  warden  or  pageant-master, 
as  at  York,  who  collected  all  pageant  dues.  And 
if  he  failed,  then  the  matter  became  one  for  the 
ruling  of  the  town  council.  This  council,  too, 
seems  to  have  been  severe  in  its  methods  of  collec- 
tions; for  at  Chester  in  1575  we  find  an  entry  that 
"  Whereas  Andrew  Tailer  of  the  saide  citie  tailer 
usinge  the  occupation  of  Diers  within  the  same 
citie  was  taxed  &  sessed  to  beare  with  the  com- 
pany of  Dyers  by  the  same  company  for  the 
charges  in  the  setting  furth  of  their  parte  &  pagent 
of  the  plaies  set  furth  &  plaied  in  this  citie  at  Mid- 
somer  last  past  comonly  called  Whytson  plaies  & 
by  the  saide  company  rated  &  appointed  to  paie  for 
that  entent  iiis.  viiid.  which  he  refused  to  paie  and 
whereas  upon  the  complainte  of  the  saide  compeny 
of  Diers  against  the  saide  Andrew  to  the  right 
worshipfull  Sir  John  Savage  knight  late  maior  of 
the  same  citie  in  the  tyme  of  his  mairalty  wher- 
upon  the  same  Andrew  beinge  called  before  the 
same  then  maior  in  that  behalf  denied  to  paie  the 
same  &  therefore  the  said  Andrew  Tailler  was  then 
and  ther  by  the  said  then  maior  comytted  to  warde 
where  he  hetherunto  hath  remayned  ".^® 

16  Morris,  Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and  Tudor 
Reigns,  pp.  304-5  w. 


30       CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

And  in  the  same  way  that  the  town  council  held 
the  members  responsible  for  their  assessments,  so 
it  held  the  pageant-master  for  his  play,  or  the  craft 
through  the  pageant-master.  In  1392,  for  instance, 
a  penalty  of  40s.  was  assessed  the  Beverley  smiths 
for  their  failure  to  present  their  play  of  the  Ascen- 
sion  on  Corpus  Christi  day ;  but  "  because  they 
acted  obediently,  therefore  the  40s.  were  re-deliv- 
ered ".^^  At  Coventry  in  1460  the  fine  was  higher, 
it  being  "  ordeyned  pat  euery  Craft  pat  hath  pagant 
to  pley  In,  that  pe  pagant  be  made  redy  &  brought 
furth  to  pley,  vppon  pe  peyn  of  Cs.  to  be  reased  of 
iiij  maistirs  of  the  Craftes  pat  so  offend  ".^^ 

Expenses  on  the  Corporation.  The  notable 
thing  about  these  regulations  for  the  plays  is 
that,  although  the  production  of  the  pageants  was 
required  by  the  city  councilmen,  yet  the  expenses 
as  a  rule  were  almost  altogether  on  the  crafts. 
Exceptions,  it  is  true,  are  to  be  found  here  and 
there,  but  many  of  them  on  close  examination  will 
be  found  to  be  seeming  rather  than  real.  For  in- 
stance, one  would  judge  on  first  thought  that  the 
Beverley  corporation  must  have  been  at  considerable 
expense  in  purchasing  pageants  and  stage  properties 
for  their  Corpus  Christi  plays;  for  we  hear  of  a 
certain  John  of  Erghes,  "  hayrer  ",  coming  before 
the  Twelve  Keepers  of  the  town  of  Beverley  in 
1391  and  undertaking  "  for  himself  and  his  fellows 

1^  Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  Beverley  MSS,  p.  66. 
18  Coventry  Leet  Book,  ii.  312. 


PREPARATION    FOR   PAGEANTS      31 

of  the  same  craft  to  play  a  certain  play  called  Para- 
dise sufficiently,  viz.,  every  year  on  the  Feast  of 
Corpus  Christi  when  other  craftsmen  of  the  same 
town  play,  during  the  life  of  the  said  John  of 
Erghes,  at  his  own  cost,  willing  and  granting  that 
he  will  pay  to  the  community  of  the  town  for  every 
default  in  the  play  aforesaid  los.,  Nicholas  Fau- 
coner  being  his  surety.  And  he  also  undertook  to 
re-deliver  to  the  twelve  Keepers  of  the  town  for 
the  time  being,  at  the  end  of  his  life,  all  necessaries 
which  he  has  belonging  to  the  said  play  under 
penality  of  20s.,  viz.,  one  car  ('  karre  '),  eight  hasps 
(*  hespis  '),  eighteen  staples  ('  stapils  '),  two  visors 
('visers'),  two  angels'  wings  (*  winges  angeli'), 
one  pine  pole  (*  fir  sparr'),  one  serpent 
(*  worme '),  two  pairs  of  linen  boots,  two  pairs  of 
shirts,  one  sword  ".^®  One  might  surmise  from 
this  unique  entry  that  the  Beverley  corporation  had 
at  some  time  experienced  real  sorrow  for  the  crafts- 
men and  had  allowed  itself  during  its  moment  of 
grief  to  purchase  the  necessary  properties  for  the 
plays ;  but  later  laws  of  the  same  town  make  it  seem 
far  more  probable  that  the  pageant  and  costumes 
lent  to  John  of  Erghes  were  once  the  property  of 
some  poor  craft  that  had  been  compelled  on  ac- 
count of  poverty  to  surrender  its  play  and  to  buy 
release  with  its  pageant-car  and  costumes.  And  in 
the  same  way  many  other  expenses  apparently 
borne  by  the  corporation  in  the  production  of  the 
^^Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  Beverley  MSS,  p.  66. 


32       CORPUS   CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

plays  may  be  shown  to  be  seeming  rather  than  real. 
Expense  of  Entertainment.  In  general,  there- 
fore, it  may  be  said  that  the  crafts  produced  the 
plays  at  the  will  of  the  councilmen,  but  at  their 
own  expense,  and  that  the  mayor  and  his  men  en- 
tertained at  the  expense  of  the  city  treasury  any 
notable  visitors  who  might  come  to  the  festival. 
For  example,  at  York  in  1478  we  have  a  record  of 
the  mayor  and  aldermen  at  Corpus  Christi.  The 
details  are  enumerated  as  follows : 

Expenses  at  the  Feast  of  Corpus  Christi. 

And  in  expenses  incurred  this  year  by  the  mayor,  alder- 
men, and  many  others  of  the  council  of  the  chamber  at 
the  Feast  of  Corpus  Christi,  seeing  and  directing  the  play 
in  the  house  of  Nicholas  Bewyk,  according  to  custom,  to- 
gether with  40s,  4d.  paid  for  red  and  white  wine,  given 
and  sent  to  knights,  ladies,  gentlemen,  and  nobles  then 
being  within  the  city;  and  also  gs,  paid  for  the  rent  of  the 
chamber,  and  3^.  4d.  paid  to  one  preaching  and  delivering 
a  sermon  on  the  morrow  of  the  said  feast,  in  the  cathedral 
church  of  St.  Peter  of  York,  after  the  celebration  of  the 
procession,  according  to  the  like  custom,  £4  iSs.  iid.^° 

At  Coventry  in  1457,  too,  we  note  that,  "  On 
Corporis  Christi  yeven  at  nyght  then  next  suying 
came  the  quene  ff-om  kelyngworth  to  Coventre;  at 
which  tyme  she  wold  not  be  met,  but  came  preuely 
to  se  the  play  there  on  the  morowe ;  ...  At  which 
tyme  the  Meyre  and  his  brethern  send  vnto  her  a 
present  which  was  sich  as  here  suyth :  That  is  to 
wit,  ccc  paynemaynes,  a  pipe  of  Rede  wyne,  a 

20  Davies,  York  Records,  pp.  75  and  77' 


PREPARATION    FOR   PAGEANTS      33 

dosyn  Capons  of  haut  grece,  a  dosyn  of  grete  fat 
Pykes,  a  grete  panyer  full  of  Pescodes  and  another 
panyer  full  of  pipyns  and  Orynges  and  ij  Cofyns 
of  Counfetys  and  a  pot  of  grene  Gynger  ".^^  And 
at  Chester  in  1575  **  it  was  ordered,  concluded,  & 
agried  upon  by  the  maior,  aldermen,  sheriffs  and 
common  counsell  of  the  saide  city  that  the  plays 
commonly  called  the  Whitson  plays  at  Mydsomer 
nexte  cominge  shall  be  sett  furth  &  plaied  in  such 
orderly  manner  &  sorte  as  the  same  have  been  ac- 
customed, with  suche  correction  and  amendemente 
as  shall  be  thaught  conveniente  by  the  saide  maior, 
&  all  charges  of  the  saide  plays  to  be  supported  & 
borne  by  thinhabitaunts  of  the  saide  citie  as  have 
been  heretofore  used  ^'P  So,  on  the  whole,  it 
may  be  safely  said  that  the  city  authorities,  as  such, 
were  at  comparatively  small  expense  with  the  plays, 
their  chief  office  being  to  exercise  a  general  super- 
visory control  over  the  pageants  as  performed  by 
the  guilds. 

;  In  the  way  of  supervision  one  of  the  first  things 
the  council  had  to  decide  by  way  of  preparation  for 
the  festival  was  whether  the  plays  were  to  be  pro- 
duced at  all  and  what  scenes,  if  any  assignments 
different  from  last  year  were  to  be  made,  were  to 
be  given  to  the  different  crafts.  In  most  of  the 
'towns  during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies the  pageants  were  an  annual  event,  but  in 

21  Coventry  Leet  Book,  ii.  300. 

22  Morris,  Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and   Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  321. 


rs^ 


34       CORPUS   CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

some  places,  as  at  Beverley  and  Worcester,  their 
presentation  was  a  subject  for  annual  decision. 
At  Beverley  the  plays  were  regularly  voted  upon 
on  St.  Mark's  day ;  at  Worcester  the  council  had 
a  leet  "  that  yerly,  at  the  lawday  holdyn  at  hok- 
day,  that  the  grete  enquest  shalle  provide  and 
ordeyn  wheper  the  pageant  shuld  go  that  yere  or 
no.  And  so  yerly  for  more  surete  ".^^ 
A  k  Assignment  of  the  Plays.  When  or  how  often 
'  "'the  individual  scenes  were  assigned  to  the  crafts 
if  is  not  known ;  nor  do  we  know  certainly  what  the 
basis  of  such  assignments  was.  Some  attempt 
seems  to  have  been  made  to  adapt  the  character  of 
the  scene  to  be  performed  to  the  vocation  of  the 
company  by  which  it  was  acted, — what  Chambers 
has  aptly  termed  "  dramatic  appropriateness  ".  It 
cannot  be  taken  as  a  matter  of  mere  accident,  for 
instance,  that  the  bakers  at  Beverley,  Chester,  and 
York  were  assigned  the  play  of  the  Last  Supper, 
that  the  cooks  at  Beverley  and  Chester  should  have 
the  Harrowing  of  Hell,  that  the  watermen  at 
Beverley  and  Chester,  the  shipwrights  at  York  and 
Newcastle-on-Tyne,  and  the  fishers  and  mariners  at 
York  should  produce  the  plays  dealing  with  Noah, 
nor  that  the  goldsmiths  at  Beverley,  York,  and 
Newcastle-on-Tyne  should  furnish  the  play  of  the 
Magi.  This  adaptation  of  pageant  scene  to  the 
trade  of  the  guild,  although  frequent,  could  not  ot 
course  be  carried  out  in  every  case.  The  reasons 
23  Smith.  English  Gilds,  p.  385. 


PREPARATION  FOR  PAGEANTS   35 

for  such  assignments  do  not  seem  to  have  been  al- 
together sentimental,  but  because  the  practice  of  a 
trade  by  a  craft  frequently  enabled  the  members  to 
act  more  effectively  in  certain  plays.  For  example, 
the  shipwrights  would  know  how  to  handle  the  ark 
better,  more  quickly,  and  more  easily  than  any  other 
guild;  the  bakers  could  furnish  the  food  for  the 
Last  Supper;  and  the  goldsmiths,  the  jewels  and  the 
ornaments  for  the  Magi. 

Patron  Saint.  j^At  other  times,  however,  the 
reason  for  the  assignment  seems  to  have  been  very 
different  and,  at  the  same  time,  more  reasonable. 
This  was  when  the  companies  were  assigned  plays 
in  which  their  patron  saints  held  a  prominent  part. 
At  Beverley,  for  example,  the  barbers,  whose 
candle  burnt  in  St.  Mary's  Church  before  the  image 
of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  agreed  **  that  they  play  or 
cause  to  be  played  a  pageant  of  the  aforesaid  S. 
John  baptising  Christ  in  the  Jordan  " ;  ^^  and  the 
tanners,  whose  "  Searge  "  burnt  before  the  image 
of  Christ  on  the  cross  in  the  high  altar  of  St. 
Mary's  chapel,  played  the  Takinge  of  the  Crose. 
At  Coventry  also  the  mercers,  whose  fraternity  was 
"  in  honour  of  the  Assumption  "  produced  the  As- 
sumption and  Appearance  of  Mary  to  Thomas,^^ 
and  at  Lincoln  and  Beverley  the  "  Prestes  "  chose 
for  their  scene  "  to  be  played  and  shown  in  the  pro- 


^ 


2*  Leach,  Beverley  Town  Documents,  p.  109. 

25  Craig,   Two  Coventry  Corpus  Christi  Plays,  Introd., 
pp.  xvi-xvii. 


36       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

cession  to  be  made  by  the  citizens  "  the  Coronacion 
of  Our  Lady. 

Variations  in  the  Assignments.  Such  seem  to 
have  been  the  principles  which  governed  the  assign- 
ment of  plays,  which,  of  course,  met  with  many 
variations  from  time  to  time.  The  assignment  of 
more  than  one  pageant  to  a  craft  was  such  a  varia- 
tion, but  one  which  was  made  occasionally  and 
which  seems  to  have  been  made  on  the  basis  of 
wealth.  At  Beverley  in  141 1  the  bowers  and 
fletchers  presented  both  the  "  Fleyng  into  Egip " 
and  the  "  Habraham  and  Isaak  " ;  ^^  the  merchants 
at  the  same  place  produced  both  Blak  Herod  and 
Domesday  in  1520;  and  in  1454  the  guild  of  the 
bricklayers  and  plasterers  at  Newcastle-on-Tyne 
furnished  the  Creation  of  Adam  and  the  Flight  into 
Egypt  plays.^^  Other  examples  of  variation  in 
the  regular  principle  of  assignments  are  to  be  found 
in  the  play  by  "  the  colliges  and  prestys  "  at  Bever- 
ley on  "Corpus  Xri  day",  1544,  and  the  pageant 
of  the  Assumption  furnished  by  the  "  worshipfuU 
wyves "  of  Chester  in  1477.  Likewise,  plays  by 
friars,  minor  clerks,  and  religious  guilds  are  not 
infrequently  mentioned;  but  the  unique  honor  of 
having  a  play  promoted  by  "  reverend  persons  of 
the  worthier  sort "  was  reserved  for  Beverley.  In 
this  case  it  seems  that  certain  well-to-do  men  of 
the  city  had  been  accustomed  to  escape  the  burdens 

28  Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  Beverley  MSS,  p.  99- 

27  Waterhouse,  Non-Cycle  Mystery  Plays,  pp.  xxxix-xl. 


PREPARATION    FOR   PAGEANTS      37 

of  a  pageant  at  Corpus  Christi  tide;  whereupon 
**  moderate  dealing  was  held  with  William  Rolles- 
ton,  merchant,  Nicholas  of  Ryse,  Adam  Tirwitt, 
John  of  Holme,  William  Wilton,  Adam  Barker, 
and  other  reverend  persons  of  the  worthier  sort  not 
having  liveries  yearly  like  others  of  the  rest  of  the 
crafts,  and  not  taking  part  in  plays  otherwise,  that 
the  said  worthies,  though  they  had  not  before  done 
so,  should  on  Corpus  Christi  day  erect  a  pageant, 
and  support  it  at  their  own  cost,  and  cause  a  play  to 
be  played  honourably  and  fittingly".  The  result 
was  that  the  "  twelve  Keepers  "  got  together  and 
**  rendered  their  judgment  in  this  form:  That  the 
aforesaid  worthies  toward  the  Feast  of  Corpus 
Christi  next  following  the  present  year  should,  by 
means  of  four  of  them  and  under  the  supervision 
of  the  twelve  Keepers  of  the  community  for  the 
time  being,  at  their  own  cost  and  charges  cause  to 
be  made  an  honest  and  honourable  pageant,  and  an 
honest  play  to  be  played  in  the  same,  under  penalty 
of  40s.  to  be  levied  from  the  same  worthies  to  the 
use  of  the  community  aforesaid  ".^® 

"The  Originalle  Booke."  Besides  looking 
after  any  possible  changes  in  the  regular  assign- 
ment of  plays,  an  additional  duty  of  the  council 
was  the  choice  of  the  text  of  the  originalle  booke, 
the  regenall,  rygynall,  oragynaU,  registrum,  or 
Corpus  Christi  play-book  by  whatever  name  it 
might  be  called ;  for,  besides  allotting  the  scenes  to 

28  Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  Beverley  MSS,  p.  67. 


38       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

each  guild,  the  aldermen  must  know  what  was  to 
be  spoken  therein.  At  Beverley  this  decision  was 
made  on  St.  Mark's  day  (April  25 )2®  and  at 
Coventry  probably  sometime  in  the  early  part  of 
March ;  for  on  the  second  of  the  month  we  find  the 
reviser  of  the  two  extant  Coventry  plays  writing: 
"  Tys  matter  nevly  translate  be  Robert  Croo  in  the 
yere  of  oure  Lorde  God  MV^xxxiiij^®  then  beyng 
meyre  Mastur  Palmar  beddar  and  Rychard  Smythe 
an  [Herre]  Pyxley  masturs  of  the  Weywars  thys 
boke  yendide  the  seycond  day  of  Marche  in  yere 
above  seyde  ".^^  A  new  selection  of  course  was 
not  made  every  year,  since  the  same  list  of  plays 
and  the  same  material  would  often  serve  for  several 
years,  possibly  for  scores  of  years.  Yet  changes 
in,  and  hence  new  selections  for,  the  "  originalle 
booke  "  were  often  a  necessity,  since  this  was  the 
register  of  all  the  plays  for  each  town.  /This  book 
remained  always  in  the  possession  of^  the  town 
council  for  safe  keeping,  and  to  it  the  crafts  came 
to  copy  their  individual  scenes.  We  do  not  know 
what  the  cost  was  of  making  this  play-book  as  a 
whole,  but  it  would  seem  to  have  been  high  accord- 
ing to  the  value  of  money  in  those  days.  The 
Coventry  drapers  in  1572  paid  ten  shillings  for 
"  wryttyng  "  their  scene,  a  price  which  would  have 
made  the  play-book  containing  all  the  scenes 
amount  to  £5.     And  a  corresponding  price  paid 

29  Leach,  Beverley  Town  Documents,  p.  99. 

30  Sharp,   Weaver's  Pageant  of  the  Presentation  in  the 
Temple,  p.  85. 


I 


PREPARATION    FOR   PAGEANTS      39 

for  the  forty-eight  scenes  of  the  York  cycle  would 
have  run  the  whole  register  up  to  £24. 

The  Waits.  The  pageants  having  been  deter- 
mined upon,  the  plays  assigned  to  the  various  com- 
panies, and  the  play-books  copied,  the  next  thing  in 
order  for  the  council  was  the  advertisement  of  the 
festival.  This)  advertising  was  done  by  means  of 
the  city  waits, "who  rode  throughout  the  town  and 
published  the  news  of  the  forthcoming  plays.  At 
Beverley  in  1423,  for  example,  we  find  an  item  of 
20c?.  paid  to  "  the  waits  of  the  town,  on  the  mor- 
row of  Ascension  Day,  riding  with  the  said  proc- 
lamation [the  banes]  of  Corpus  Christi  through 
the  whole  town  '^SP\  And  at  Chester  we  learn  that 
**yarlye  before  these  [plays]  were  played,  there 
was  a  man  fitted  for  ye  purpose  which  did  ride,  as 
I  take  it  vpon  St  George  daye  throughe  ye  Cittie 
[of  Chester],  and  there  published  the  tyme  and  the 
matter  of  ye  playes  in  breif  e,  which  was  called  *  ye 
readinge  of  the  banes '  ".^^  In  this  case,  how- 
ever, the  city  crier  served  as  a  wait.  Chambers 
states  ^^  that  the  stewards  of  each  craft  rode  with 
the  Chester  city  crier,  and  it  would  seem  probable 
that  the  actors  themselves  sometimes  went  along; 
for  in  1 561  we  find  2s.  paid  for  "  ryding  the  banes, 
our  horses  and  ourselves,  of  which  Symyon  was 
one  ".•''*    In  other  towns  than  Chester  from  two  to 

^^Hist  MSS  Comm.,  Beverley  MSS,  p.  160. 
32  Furnivall,  Digby  Mysteries,  p.  xix. 
S3  Mediaeval  Stage,  ii.  354. 

34  Morris,  Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and  Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  306  n. 


40       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

four  regular  waits  served.  At  York  in  1461  there 
were  three;  three  at  Lincoln  in  1514;  two  at  Bever- 
ley in  1423,  three  in  1438 ;  and  four  at  Coventry  in 
1423.  In  1439  at  Coventry  they  even  organized 
themselves  into  a  band  and  "  ordcyned  that  they 
Trumpet  schall  haue  the  rule  off  the  whaytes,  and 
off  hem  be  Cheffe  ".^^  In  consequence  of  this  or- 
ganization we  hear  of  their  wearing  regular  liv- 
eries. Numerous  entries  of  expenses  "  for  the 
Waits'  liveries  and  badges "  are  to  be  found  at 
Beverley,  Coventry,  Lincoln,  York,  and  other 
cities.  At  Coventry  in  1442  the  waits  were  "  to 
have  their  livery  on  condition  that  they  have  a 
trumpet,  and  the  escutcheons  (badges)  on  security 
being  found ;  that  is  to  say,  they  shall  have  a  dozen 
of  cloth  worth  20s.  due  to  them  for  their  livery 
from  the  wardens,  against  Corpus  Christi  ".^®  At 
Lincoln  in  1553  the  waits  were  "  to  have  their  liv- 
eries of  red  cloth  as  they  had  last  year  ",  ^^  and  at 
York  in  146 1-2  there  is  an  expense  of  26.?.  "  paid  to 
William  Chymnay,  for  twelve  ells  of  Muster- 
develers  [coarse  velvet],  bought  for  three  minstrels 
of  the  City  ".^®  Their  badge  of  office  was  usually 
a  shield,  which  hung  from  a  silver  collar  about  the 
minstrel's  rieck.  It  was  so  costly  that  at  Coventry 
it  was  delivered  to  the  wait  only  upon  security,  and 

85  Harris,  Coventry  Leet  Book,  p.  189. 

86  Ibid.,  p.  200. 

37  Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  xiv.  App.  8,  p.  47- 
88  Davies,  York  Records,  p.  13. 


PREPARATION  FOR  PAGEANTS   41 

at  Beverley  was  kept  by  the  city  and  delivered  to 
the  minstrel  "  on  occasions  when  needed  ". — 

4  April,  for  two  silver  shields  Cscutis*)  in  honour  of 
the  community,  to  be  yearly  delivered  to  the  waits  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  Keepers  for  the  time  being,  under  suffi- 
cient sureties,  the  price  of  the  shield  3iJ.«* 

At  Lincoln,  instead  of  being  shields,  these  badges 
took  the  form  of  crosses  and,  as  at  most  places, 
were  charged  with  the  city  arms. 

Duties  and  Decorations  of  the  Minstrels.  The 
number  of  the  waits,  as  we  have  seen  above,  was 
usually  three,  and  their  instruments  were  generally 
a  fife  and  a  trumpet,  to  which  a  drum  was  often 
added.  Sharp  gives  a  note  of  expense  from  the 
Coventry  treasurer's  accounts  which  will  serve  to 
give  some  idea  of  the  decorations  carried  by  the 
waits  on  their  instruments : — 

1587.— D'd  to  Goldstone  for  the  Trumpet  the  15  of  June 
doble  taffata  sarcenet  Crimson  &  grcene  viijs  Red  & 
grene  strings  w'th  buttons  red  frenge  &  silke  ijs  jd.*o 

This  was  in  1587,  seven  years  after  the  regular 
Corpus  Christi  plays  were  laid  down,  but  it  may 
be  taken  as  probably  differing  very  slightly  from  an 
earlier  custom  of  appending  banners  resplendent 
with  the  city  arms  to  the  trumpets  of  the  waits  as 
they  rode  through  their  own  and  their  neighbor 
cities  proclaiming  the  pageants  for  the  next  Corpus 

39  Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  Beverley  MSS,  p.  161. 
*^  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  209. 


42       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

Christi  festival  and  attracting  attention  by  means 
of  their  fife,  trumpet,  and  drum. 

The   Banes. 

Lordings  Royall  and  Reverentt 
Lovelie  ladies  that  here  be  lentt 
Sovereigne  Citizens  hether  am  I  sent 
A  message  for  to  say. 

I  pray  you  all  that  be  present 
That  you  will  here  with  good  intent 
And  all  your  eares  to  be  lent 
Hertfull  I  you  pray. 

Our  worshipfull  mair  of  this  Citie 
With   all   his   royall   cominaltie 
Solem  pagens  ordent  hath  he 

At  the  fest  of  Whitsonday  tyde.*i 

Thus  the  crier  of  the  Chester  banes  began  his 
proclamation  on  St.  George's  day  before  the 
festival.  This  preliminary  announcement  of  the 
forthcoming  pageants,  known  as  the  banes,  or 
banns,  was  cried  in  the  market-place,  in  all 
the  principal  streets  of  the  city,  and  probably  in 
the  neighboring  towns.  As  seen  from  the  extract 
above,  the  banes  were  a  versified  announcement  of 
what  the  plays  were  to  be,  especially  prepared  and 
written  out  by  the  waits  before  starting  on  their 
ride.  At  Beverley  in  1423  we  have  a  note  of  6s. 
Sd.    paid    to    "  Master    Thomas    Bynham,    Friar 

*i  Morris,  Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and  Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  307. 


PREPARATION    FOR   PAGEANTS      43 

Preacher,  for  making  and  composing  the  banns 
(*  les  banes')  before  the  Corpus  Christi  play  pro- 
claimed through  the  whole  town,  4  May  ".*^  And 
other  notices  of  payments  for  the  banes  and  to  the 
waits  for  riding  are  to  be  found  from  time  to  time. 
Payment  of  the  Waits.  Such  were  the  pre- 
liminary duties  of  the  waits  with  reference  to  the 
Corpus  Christi  plays,  for  which  they  seem  to  have 
been  well  paid — so  well,  in  fact,  that  the  position 
became  a  most  desirable  one.  At  Beverley  they 
were  elected  annually  by  the  town  council  and  were 
paid  twenty  shillings  a  year  for  their  duties,*^  but 
were  given  a  fee  of  ten  pence  each  extra  "  on  the 
morrow  of  Ascension  Day,  [for]  riding  with  the 
said  proclamation  of  Corpus  Christi  through  the 
whole  town  ".**  At  Chester  also,  when  the  city 
crier  delivered  the  proclamation  of  the  plays,  we 
find  extra  payments  made. — 

1554.    For  ryding  the  banes  xiiid.  the  City  Cryer  ridd. 

1 561.  Cost  of  ryding  the  bancs,  our  horses  and  our- 
selves, of  which  Symyon  was  one,  iis. 

1567.  For  the  banes  id.;  Gloves  and  drink  iiiid. ;  Bred 
for  our  horses  that  day  we  rod  the  banes 
xiid.*5 

And  at  Coventry  and  York  the  waits  were  regarded 
as  so  important  that,  in  addition  to  their  salary 

*2  Hist.  MSS  Comtn.,  Beverley  MSS,  p.  160. 
*^  Ibid.,  p.  105. 
^^Ibid.,  p.  160. 

*5  Morris,   Chester  during   the  Plantagenet  and   Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  306  n. 


44       CORPUS   CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

from  the  city,  they  were  voted  an  annual  tax  from 
the  different  classes  of  citizens  according  to  wealth 
and  rank.  And  in  order  that  the  waits  might  be 
sure  of  collecting  their  legal  allowance  from  the 
townspeople  it  was  voted  at  Coventry  [1460]  "  pat 
an  honest  man  in  euery  ward  shuld  be  assigned 
be  pe  Meir  to  go  with  pe  waytes  to  gader  thier 
wages  quarterly  etc.  at  the  peticion  of  pe  wates 
then  beyng".*^  "  Allso  [1423]  pat  thai  haue  of 
euery  hall  place  jd.,  of  euery  Cottage  ob.,  euery 
quarter ;  &  af tur  per  beryng  bettur  to  be  rewardyd. 
And  also  pai  orden  pat  thei  shall  haue  ij  men  of 
euery  ward  euery  quarter  to  help  them  to  gathur 
per  Quarterage."  *^ 

Street  Cleaning.  The  final  preparations  for 
the  festival  were  made  by  the  council  when  they 
"  ordeyned "  the  cleaning  of  the  streets  and  as- 
signed stations  where  the  plays  were  to  be  given. — 

Whoever  lives  between  the  Bear  and  Smithford-brook 
to  pay  4d.  towards  clearing  the  river  or  provide  a  labourer 
to  do  it  before  the  festival.*^ 

Gardens  beyond  the  walls  are  to  be  done  away  with  be- 
fore Whitsuntide  or  6s.  Sd.  fine.*^ 

Every  one  having  lands  or  tenements  lying  by  the  river 
from  Crow-mill  to  Gosford-gate,  to  cleanse  it  opposite  his 
tenement  before  Whitsuntide,  or  20s.  fine  levied  by  the 
mayor  for  this  clearing.    And  the  mayor  to  see  to  it  that 

**  Harris,  Coventry  Leet  Book,  p.  307. 
^"^  Ibid.,  p.  59. 
*8  Ibid.,  p.  227. 
*^  Ibid.,  p.  220, 


PREPARATION    FOR    PAGEANTS       45 

where  the  river  has  been  encroached  on  by  any  one,  that 
it  shall  be  put  right.^o 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  Corpus  Christi 
celebration  was  the  greatest  public  event  of  the 
year,  when  thousands  of  people  from  all  the  neigh- 
boring sections  flocked  into  the  city  to  see  the  sights 
and  help  celebrate  the  day ;  and  the  cleaning  of  the 
streets  was  but  one  of  the  many  numerous  prepara- 
tions for  the  coming  event.  Other  preparations 
were  the  decorations,  the  banners,  the  flags,  and  the 
gay  pendants. 

The  streittis  war  all  hung  with  tapestrie. 
Great  was  the  press  of  peopill  dwelt  about. 

,  Station  Banners.  Then  the  evening  before 
tlib-pkyr  were  to  begin  the  stations  where  the 
pageants  were  to  halt  were  all  marked  with  banners 
bearing  the  arms  of  the  city.  At  York  we  find 
among  the  list  of  "  Expenses  necessary  "  for  the 
year  1416  4J.  "  paid  for  a  banner  of  Thomas  Gaunt, 
for  the  Corpus  Christi  play,  at  the  inn  of  Henry 
Watson  " ;  and  "  Margaret  the  sempstress  "  was 
paid  3^.  "  for  the  repair  of  the  banners  of  the 
Corpus  Christi  play  ".^^  There  must  have  been 
something  like  twelve  of  these  banners;  for,  since 
1399,  the  plays  had  been  regularly  given  at  twelve 
stations,  and,  though  the  records  show  that  the 
exact  playing  places  were  changed  the  following 

50  Harris,  Coventry  Leet  Book,  p.  227. 

51  Davies,  York  Records,  pp.  63  and  65. 


46       CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

year,  141 7,  yet  we  find  that  they  still  continued  to 
be  twelve  in  number. — 

For  the  convenience  of  the  citizens  and  of  all  strangers 
coming  to  the  said  feast  that  all  the  pageants  of  the  play 
called  Corpus  Christi  Play  should  .  .  .  begin  to  play, 
first— 

At  the  gates  of  the  pryory  of  the  Holy  Trinity  in 

Mikel-gate,  next 
At  the  door  of  Robert  Harpham,  next 
At  the  door  of  the  late  John  Gyseburn,  next 
At  Skelder-gate-hend  and  North-strete-hend,  next 
At  the  end  of  Conyng-strete  towards  Castel-gate,  next 
At  the  end  of  Jubir-gate,  next 

At  the  door  of  Henry  Wyman,  deceased,  in  Conyng- 
strete.  then 
At  the  Common  Hall  at  the  end  of   Conyng-strete, 

then 
At  the  door  of  Adam  del  Brygs,  deceased,  in  Stayne- 

gate,  then 
At  the  end  of  Stayn-gate  at  the  Minster-gates,  then 
At  the  end  of  Girdler-gate  in  Peter-gate,  and  lastly 
Upon  the  Pavement.^^ 

At  York  the  number  of  stations  at  which  the  plays 
were  given  varied  between  twelve  and  sixteen;  at 
Beverley  in  1467  there  were  eight  ;^^  and  at 
Coventry,  probably  ten.^*  At  Chester  we  do  not 
know  the  exact  number  of  stations,  but  only  that 

^2  Smith,  York  Plays,  Introd.,  pp.  xxxii-xxxiii. 

53  Chambers  says,  Mediaeval  Stage,  ii.  138,  that  there 
were  only  six  stations  at  Beverley,  but  in  this  he  is  mani- 
festly wrong.  Compare  Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  Beverley  MSS, 
pp.  135,  143. 

8*  Craig,  Two  Coventry  Corpus  Christi  Plays,  xiii-xiv. 


PREPARATION    FOR   PAGEANTS      47 

the  plays  "  first  beganne  at  ye  Abbaye  gates ;  & 
when  the  firste  pagiente  was  played  at  ye  Abbaye 
gates,  then  it  was  wheeled  from  thence  to  the  pen- 
tice  at  ye  highe  crosse  before  ye  Mayor ;  and  before 
that  was  donne,  the  seconde  came,  and  ye  firste 
wente  in-to  the  water-gate  streete,  and  from  thence 
vnto  ye  Bridge-streete,  and  soe  all,  one  after  an 
other,  tell  all  ye  pagiantes  weare  played,  appoynted 
for  ye  firste  daye,  and  so  likewise  for  the  seconde 
&  the  thirde  daye  "." 

Station  Renting.  What  the  earliest  reasons 
were  for  assigning  the  playing  stations  to  particular 
locations  is  not  known,  but  they  are  conjectured  to 
have  been  the  places  where  the  host  in  the  proces- 
sion halted  on  its  journey  through  the  streets.^® 
As  the  plays  and  the  procession  gradually  grew 
apart  from  each  other,  however,  the  assignment  of 
stations  in  certain  towns,  at  least  at  York,  was 
influenced  by  more  worldly  and  more  lucrative 
motives.  In  1399  at  York  the  city  council,  because 
of  complaint  from  the  commons  of  the  city  that 
"  the  play  and  pageants  of  Corpus  Christi  day, 
which  put  them  to  great  cost  and  expense,  were  not 
played  as  they  ought  to  be,  because  they  were  ex- 
hibited in  too  many  places,  to  the  great  loss  and 
annoyance  of  the  citizens,  and  of  the  strangers  re- 
pairing to  the  city  on  that  day",  determined  that 
there  should  be  twelve  stations;  but  in  1417  they 

^'^  Furnivall,  Digby  Mysteries,  p.  xix. 

'^^  Cf.  Davidson,  English  Mystery  Plays,  p.  91  ff. 


48       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

decided  that  *  it  was  inconvenient,  and  contrary  to 
the  profit  of  the  city,  that  the  play  should  be  played 
every  year  in  the  same  certain  places,  and  no 
others'.  It  was  therefore  voted  'that  those  per- 
sons should  be  allowed  to  have  the  play  before  their 
houses  who  would  pay  the  highest  price  for  the 
privilege,  but  that  no  favour  should  be  shewn,  the 
public  advantage  of  the  whole  community  being 
only  considered  '.**^  Accordingly  we  find  **  the 
mayor  and  commonalty"  in  1478  granting  for 
twelve  years  to  Henry  and  Thomas  Dawson,  pike- 
mongers,  a  lease  of  *  Ludum  sive  lusum  corporis 
xp'i  annuatim  ludendum  in  alt  a  strata  de  0  use  gate 
inter  tenementa  in  tenura  prefatorum  Henrici  et 
Thome,  scilicet,  apud  finem  pontis  Use  ex  parte 
orientali  '.^^  For  this  lease  the  Dawsons  paid  an 
annual  rent  of  twelve  shillings,  and  no  doubt  were 
accustomed  to  realize  considerable  profit  by  accom- 
modating spectators  for  the  shows.  It  seems,  how- 
ever, that  not  all  the  playing  places  were  rented; 
for  we  learn  that  no  rent  was  ever  paid  for  the  sta- 
tion before  the  Trinity  gates,  or  for  *  the  Common 
Hall,  a  place  where  "  my  Lady  Mayres  and  her  sys- 
ters  [i.  e.  wives  of  the  aldermen]  lay  ",  or  for  the 
Pavement,  a  public  place  in  the  midst  of  the  city  '.*^® 
The  Pavement  plainly  was  exempt  because  it  was  a 
public  place ;  "  my  Lady  Mayres's  "  place  was  free 

5^  Davies,  York  Records,  p.  241. 

^®  Quoted  in  Davies,  York  Records,  p.  241. 

59  Smith,  York  Plays,  Introd.,  p.  xiL 


PREPARATION    FOR   PAGEANTS      49 

because  it  was  there  that  the  nobility  and  the  royal 
visitors  of  the  city  were  entertained;  and  we  shall 
see  later  that  the  station  at  Trinity  church  was  not 
taxed  because  from  old  time  the  plays  were  first 
viewed  there  and  censored  by  the  clergy. 

Stations  Sought.  At  other  towns  than  York 
we  do  not  hear  of  any  rental  of  stations  on  the  part 
of  the  city  corporations,  though  we  do  find  various 
lawsuits  over  rooms  and  houses  from  which  the 
pageants  might  be  viewed.  At  Chester  there  is  a 
well  known  record  of  a  suit  "  betwene  John  Whit- 
more,  Esquier,  upon  thon  partie  and  Anne  Webster, 
widow,  tenaunt  to  George  Ireland,  Esquier,  upon 
thother  partie  for  and  concerning  the  claime  righte 
and  title  of  a  mansion,  Rowme,  or  Place  for  the 
Whydson  plaies  in  the  Brudg  gate  strete  within  the 
Cyty  of  Chester  which  varyaunce  hath  bene  here 
wayed  and  considered  by  Ric.  Button,  Esquier, 
Maior  of  the  Cyty  of  Chester,  and  Wm.  Gerrard, 
Esquier,  Recorder  of  the  said  Cyty,  by  whom  it  is 
now  ordered  that  forasmuche  as  the  said  Mistres 
Webster  and  other  the  tenants  of  the  said  Mr.  Ire- 
land have  had  their  place  and  mansyon  in  the  said 
place  now  in  varyaunce  in  quiet  sort  for  ii  tymes 
past  whan  the  said  plaies  were  plaied.  That  the 
said  Anne  Webster  in  quiet  sort  for  this  presente 
tyme  of  whydsontide  during  all  the  tyme  of  the  said 
plaies  shall  enjoy  and  have  her  mansyon,  place,  and 
the  said  place  and  Rome  now  in  varyaunce  ".•" 

«o  Morris,   Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and  Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  304  n. 


50       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

From  these  and  other  instances,  as  well  as  from 
*'pe  request  of  pe  Inhabitaunts  [of  Coventry, 
1494]  dwellyng  in  Gosseford-strete  that  pe 
pageantes  gerely  frohensfurth  be  sette  &  stande  at 
pe  place  there  of  olde  tyme  vsed  [in  Gosford 
Street],  lymyt  &  appoynted  ",  it  may  be  judged  that 
the  pageant  stations  were  much  sought  after  by 
the  residents  of  the  different  wards. 

Appearance  of  the  Stations.  Of  the  actual  ap- 
pearance of  these  stations  there  is  perhaps  little  to 
be  said,  except  that  they  were  made  in  the  ordinary 
street,  street-corner,  or  inn-yard,  and  that  the 
actual  spot  where  the  pageant-wagon  was  to  halt 
was  marked,  as  we  have  seen,  with  a  banner  bear- 
ing the  arms  of  the  city.  An  examination  of  the 
local  maps  of  the  towns  where  these  plays  were 
given  shows  that  the  places  selected  for  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  pageants,  as  nearly  as  we  can  iden- 
tify them  now,  were  generally  in  the  broadest 
streets  of  the  town.  For  example.  Dr.  Craig  has 
identified  all  the  stations  in  Coventry  ^^  as  nearly 
as  it  seems  possible,  and  in  every  case  they  were 
placed  in  the  wide  streets  of  the  city.  Gosford 
Street,  Jordan  Well,  Much  Park  Street  out  at  New- 
gate end,  Little  Park  Street, — all  were  broad  and 
ample  in  space  for  the  pageants  and  their  audiences. 
All  the  houses  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
the  pageant  stations  were  required  by  law  to  be 
decorated  with  flags,  banners,  garlands,  and  other 

«i  Two  Coventry  Corpus  Christi  Plays,  pp.  xiii-xiv. 


PREPARATION   FOR   PAGEANTS      51 

holiday  regalia,  and  each  guild  had  its  own  scaf-  O 
fold  on  which  its  members  and  their  friends  sat  to 
watch  the  pla)^'  These  scaffolds  were  variously 
known  as  stages,  mansions,  rooms,  and  castles,  and 
were  built  by  the  tradesmen  "  of  tree  upon  Monday 
in  the  Rogacion  weeke,  in  the  honor  of  Gode  and 
the  glorious  confessor  Saynt  John ".  They  were 
covered  and  decorated  "  in  an  ornamental 
fashion "  ^^  like  the  pageant-wagons  themselves, 
and  at  Beverley  in  1460  the  directors  of  the 
pageants  had  a  separate  one  in  which  they  sat  "  to 
see  and  govern  the  pageants  ".^^ 

Pageant-Master.  Thus  we  have  seen  the 
general  preparations  and  ordinances  made  by  the 
city  council  in  getting  ready  for  the  festival  season, 
— the  assignment  of  plays  and  playing-places,  the 
proclamation  of  the  banes,  the  clearing  of  the 
streets,  and  the  other  minor  duties  devolving  on  the 
mayor  and  aldermen.  In  the  meantime,  however, 
the  trades  companies  were  equally  busy ;  for  theirs 
was  the  difficult  and  the  crucial  part  of  the  cele- 
bration. The  organization  of  their  activities  as  a  ^ 
rule  was  under  the  general  direction  of  the  pageant- 
master,  or  warden,  or  alderman  of  the  pageant, 
who  was  elected  by  the  guild  and  was  held  gener- 
ally responsible  for  the  production  of  the  plays. 
Something  of  his  duties  at  Coventry  may  be  seenlfe; 
from  the  following :  ' 

^2  Leach,  Beverley  Town  Documents,  pp.  34-5. 
®3  Leach  in  Furnivall  Miscellany,  p.  215. 


52       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

These  men  above  writen  wer  acordid  &  agreed  on  munday 
next  befor  palme  sonday  Anno  H.  (6th)  xxxj.  [  1453,]  That 
Thorn's  Colclow  skynner  ffro  this  day  forth  shull  have  pe 
Rewle  of  pe  pajaunt  unto  pe  end  of  xij  yers  next  folowing 
he  for  to  find  De  pleyers  and  all  t)t  longeth  perto  all  \)q 
seide  time  save  pe  keper  of  the  craft  shall  let  bring  forth 
pe  pajant  &  find  Cloys  pt  gon  abowte  pe  pajant  and  find 
Russhes  perto  and  every  wytson-weke  who  pt  be  kepers  of 
pe  crafte  shall  dyne  wt  Colclow  &  every  mastr  ley  down 
iiijd  and  Colclow  shall  have  :jerely  ffor  his  labor  xlvjs 
viijd  &  he  to  bring  in  to  pe  mastr  on  sonday  next  aftr 
corps  xpi  day  pe  originall  &  ffech  his  vij  nobulle;^  and 
Colclow  must  bring  in  at  pe  latr  end  of  pe  timej  all  pe 
garments  pt  longen  to  pe  pajant  as  good  as  pey  wer  de- 
lyvered  to  hym.®* 

Other  examples  of  such  "play  lettine"  can  be 
traced  at  other  towns,  but  the  case  of  Colclow  was 
an  extreme  one,  the  more  usual  thing  being  for  the 
guilds  to  keep  the  management  of  their  plays  more 
directly  under  their  own  control.  Such  a  custom 
was  that  at  York  where  each  company  appointed 
two  "  pageant-masters "  whose  duty  it  was  to 
collect  the  "  pajaunt  silver  ",  account  for  it  and  the 
playing  gear,  and  train  the  actors  in  their  parts. 
If  they  failed  to  produce  their  pageant,  or  if  their 
play  was  not  up  to  the  standard  demanded  by  the 
council,  then  both  they  and  their  company  were 
fined  for  their  neglect.  At  Beverley  we  find  two 
shillings  collected  from  "  Richard  Trollop,  Alder- 
man of  Payntours,  for  that  his  Play  of  '  Lez  3 
Kyngs  of  Colleyn  *  was  played  badly  and  disor- 
derly, in  contempt  of  the  whole  community,  in  the 
presence    of    many    strangers ",    and    I2d.    from. 

«*  Sharp,  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  15. 


PREPARATION    FOR   PAGEANTS      53 

"Richard  Gaynstang,  Alderman  of  Talours,  for 
that  his  Play  of  '  Slepyng  Pilate ',  was  badly 
played,  against  the  ordinance  made  in  that  be- 
half ".«« 

Revision  of  Plays.  At  Coventry  the  pageant- 
master  was  elected  "a-pon  saynt  Thomas  day  in 
Christinmas  weke  ",  and  he  seems  to  have  begun 
his  active  duties  early  in  the  new  year;  for  some- 
time in  March  or  April,  as  we  have  seen  above,  the 
plays  were  probably  determined  upon  by  the  alder- 
men and  turned  over  to  the  pageant-master  for  safe 
keeping,  for  any  necessary  revisions,  and  for  copy- 
ing the  different  parts.  Considerable  care  and  ef- 
fort too,  even  rivalry,  seem  to  have  been  spent  in 
the  rewriting  and  revising  of  old  scenes  for  the 
coming  pageants.  At  Chester  in  1575  we  find  a 
record  of  iSd.  "  spent  at  Tyer  to  heare  2  playes 
before  the  Aldermen  to  take  the  best".^^  And 
when  available  plays  and  writers  were  not  to  be 
had  at  home,  the  councilmen  went  outside  their 
town  and  got  what  they  wanted.  Consequently  we 
find  among  the  "  Common  Expenses  "  at  Beverley 
in  1520  a  note  of  "  ys.  spent  by  the  12  Governors 
being  with  Sir  William  Pyers,  poet,  at  Edmund 
Metcalff's  house  to  make  an  agreement  with  him 
for  transposing  [*  transposicione ']  the  Corpus 
Christi  Play  ",  and  "  3^.  4d.  given  to  the  said  Wil- 
liam Pyers  for  his  expenses  and  labour  in  coming 

^^Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  Beverley  MSS,  p.  172. 
•^  Morris,   Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and   Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  305  n. 


54       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

from  Wresill  to  Beverley  for  the  alteration  of  the 
same  ".®^ 

Causes  of  the  Revisions.  It  is  the  large  num- 
ber of  these  alterations  and  transpositions  that  has 
given  modern  students  so  much  trouble  in  under- 
standing the  texts  of  the  plays  and  the  methods  of 
presentation.  That  any  of  the  complete  cycles 
were  ever  played  just  as  we  have  them  to-day  in 
the  MSS  is  extremely  doubtful.  The  York  spicers' 
scene,  for  example,  would  seem  never  to  have  been 
produced  on  any  stage;  for  the  sixteenth-century 
marginal  note  in  the  MS,  probably  written  when 
the  play-book  was  submitted  to  Dean  Matthew 
Hutton  in  1579,  says:  "Doctor,  this  matter  is 
newly  mayde,  wherof  we  haue  no  coppy  ".®®  And 
the  marshalls',  cordwainers',  and  the  sporiers  and 
lorimers'  plays  in  the  same  cycle  were  all  rewritten 
after  the  full  register  was  compiled.  Likewise,  at 
Chester  the  entire  cycle  seems  to  be  a  late  copy  of 
the  plays  made  after  the  pageants  were  at  an  end. 
And  the  Towneley  plays,  Mr.  Pollard  tells  us,  are 
the  work  of  three  separate  hands  covering  a  period 
of  something  like  a  half-century.  These  revisions 
and  alterations,  it  may  be  safely  said,  were  made 
for  one  of  four  chief  reasons :  ( i )  because  some 
craft  had  fallen  into  poverty  and  the  matter  in  its 
play  had  to  be  incorporated  with  that  of  one  of  the 
preceding  or  of  the  succeeding  pageants,  like  the 

<iT  Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  Beverley  MSS,  p.  171. 
«8  Smith,  York  Plays,  p.  93  n. 


PREPARATION    FOR   PAGEANTS      55 

Chester  drapers'  Creation,  Fall,  and  Cain's  Sin  or 
the  Towneley  Conspiracy,  Supper,  and  Arrest  of 
Christ,  each  of  which  seems  to  be  a  telescoping  of 
two  plays;  (2)  because  a  new  craft  had  been  added 
to  the  number  of  pageant  producers  since  the  pre- 
ceding year  and  a  separate  play  had  to  be  secured 
for  the  added  company  either  by  developing  a  new 
scene  from  a  former  incident,  such  as  Thomas's 
vision,  or  by  cutting  off  a  part  from  one  of  last 
year's  plays,  as  the  York  goldsmiths'  Coming  of  the 
Three  Kings  to  Herod;  (3)  because  perhaps  a 
company  had  tired  of  presenting  the  same  scene 
from  year  to  year  and  wished  to  add  new  material 
to  the  play,  or  to  substitute  an  entirely  new  scene, 
like  the  Towneley  First  and  Second  Shepherds' 
Plays,  or,  possibly,  "  the  matter  of  pe  castell  of 
emaus  "  added  to  the  Coventry  cappers'  roll  in 
1540;  and  (4)  because  change  of  religious  feeling 
had  made  certain  scenes  unacceptable  to  the  pub- 
lic, as  when  in  1548  at  York  "certen  pagyauntes 
[were  made]  excepte,  that  is  to  say,  the  deyng  of 
our  lady,  the  assumption  of  our  lady,  and  the 
coronacion  of  our  lady  ".  The  supervision  of  all 
such  alterations  and  copies  of  the  council  register 
were  a  part  of  the  pageant-master's  preliminary 
duties  in  each  guild  in  getting  ready  for  the  plays 
later? 

Selection  of  the  Actors.  The  next  move  of 
the  pageant-master,  after  revising  the  play  and 
copying  the  individual  parts,  was  to  select  his  actors 


56       CORPUS    CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

and  begin  rehearsals.  At  Coventry  these  players 
were  procured,  some  of  them  certainly,  from  their 
own  guilds;  for  in  1444  the  council  decreed  that 
"  per  shall  no  man  of  the  said  iiij  Craftes  [the 
Cardmakers,  Masons,  Painters,  and  Sadlers]  play  in 
no  pagent  on  Corpus  Christi  day  save  onely  in  the 
pagent  of  his  own  Crafte,  without  he  have  lycens 
of  the  maiour  pat  shal-be  for  the  yer  '\^^'  This 
would  argue  as  well,  however,  that  the  pageant- 
masters  were  accustomed  to  get  their  men  from 
each  other  and,  in  fact,  from  all  sources, — which 
was  true.  We  hear  of  both  clerks  and  laymen, 
professionals  and  amateurs  being  chosen  for  the 
plays.  Some  doubtless  were  actors  of  exceptional 
or  unusual  ability  who  had  come  from  the  neigh- 
boring towns  for  this  special  festival  of  the  year; 
for  we  hear  of  London  players  and  of  at  least  one 
from  Wakefield  being  at  York  in  1446,^°  and  no 
doubt  there  were  other  borrowings  of  especially 
good  actors  from  neighboring  towns.  The  tend- 
ency, however,  must  have  been  to  choose  local  play- 
ers as  far  as  possible  in  order  to  restrict  the  guild 
expenses  to  the  minimum,  a  fact  which  may  in  a 
measure  account  for  the  apology  in  "  ye  Banes  or 
Breif  e  of  ye  whitson  playes  in  Chester  " : 

By  Craftes  men  &  meane  men  these  Pageauntes  are  played 
and  to  Commons  and  Contrye  men  acustomablye  before. 
If  better  men  &  finer  heades  now  come,  what  canne  be 
saide? 

«»  Harris,  Coventry  Leet  Book,  i.  206. 
^®  Smith,  York  Plays,  p.  xxxviii. 


PREPARATION   FOR   PAGEANTS      57 

But    of    common    and    contrye    playeres    take    thou    the 
storye.^^ 

Care  in  the  Choice  of  Actors.  The  plays  were 
indeed  given  by  craftsmen  and  common  workmen 
and  were  often  necessarily  crude,  yet  the  law  and 
the  pageant-masters  were  very  careful  about  pro- 
curing as  competent  men  as  possible  to  represent 
the  proper  characters;  the  occasion  was  too  im- 
portant and  too  solemn  a  one  to  allow  any  excuses 
from  the  players  for  improper  or  unskillful  acting. 
Among  the  expenses  of  the  Chester  smiths  one 
finds  illustrative  notices  of  money  spent  in  1567, 
for  instance,  "  for  the  chosinge  of  the  little  god  " ; 
4d.  "  on  the  Sonday  morninge  at  hearinge  of  the 
Docters  and  little  God  " ;  and  lod.  "  Spent  at  her- 
inge  of  the  players  ".'^^  Likewise  at  Newcastle- 
on-Tyne  the  company  of  fullers  and  dyers  spent  the 
comparatively  large  sums  of  10^.  in  1561  "  for  the 
rehersall  of  the  play  before  ye  crafft "  and  3d.  "  to 
a  mynstrell  yt  nyght  ".^^  And  it  was  ordered  at 
York  in  1476  with  the  full  consent  and  authority  of 
the  council  "  pat  yerely  in  pe  tyme  of  lentyn  there- 
shall  be  called  afore  the  maire  for  pe  tyme  beyng 
iiij  of  pe  moste  connyng  discrete  and  able  players 
within  this  Citie,  to  serche,  here,  and  examen  all  pe 
plaiers  and  plaies  and  pagentes  thrughoute  all  pe 
artificers  belonging  to  Corpus  Xti  Plaie.  And  all 
suche  as  pay  shall  fynde  sufiiciant  in  personne  and 

71  Furnivall,  Digby  Plays,  p.  xx. 

72  Morris,  Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and  Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  305  n. 

78  Brand,  History  of  Newcastle,  p.  371  n. 


58       CORPUS   CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

connyng,  to  pe  honour  of  pe  Citie  and  worship  of 
pe  saide  Craftes,  for  to  admitte  and  able;  and  all 
oper  insufficiant  personnes,  either  in  connyng, 
voice,  or  personne  to  discharge,  ammove,  and 
avoide  ".^*  And  at  Chester,  as  an  added  precau- 
tion against  careless  work,  the  companies  must  re- 
hearse before  "  Mr.  Maior  "  before  the  appointed 
day  of  celebration ;  then  if  after  all  this  precaution 
these  actors  failed  in  their  parts,  the  craft  that 
they  represented  was  promptly  fined  for  the  shame 
which  its  company  of  players  had  brought  upon  the 
town. — 

Rob.  Thornskew,  aldermannus,  tnonitus  est  hie  xvj  die 
Jun.  ad  exponendum  vjs.  viijd.  eo  quod  lusores  artis  Car- 
pentariorum  nesciehant  ludutn  suum  die  Corporis  Christi 
contra  poenam  proclamationis  comtnunis  campanatorisJ'^ 

Rehearsals.  The  rehearsals  of  the  pageant- 
master  in  1500  were  a  most  serious,  and  usually  a 
very  thirsty,  business.  They  were  regularly  and 
untiringly  held  from  two  to  five  times  before  the 
festival,  and  always  a  necessary  accompaniment  of 
any  properly  conducted  rehearsal  was  the  eating 
and  drinking,  with  due  emphasis  on  the  latter. 
Some  of  the  general  rehearsal  expenses  for  meat 
and  drink  are  the  following  from  the  Chester 
smiths'  accounts: 

1 561.  Payed  for  the  1st  reherse  at  Jo:  Huntington's 
house,  vid;  Drink  in  barkers  after  the  rehearse,  xviiid.; 

T*  Smith,  York  Plays,  p.  xxxvii. 

f^Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  Beverley  MSS,  p.  136. 


PREPARATION    FOR   PAGEANTS      59 

For  beaffe  against  the  generall  rehearse,  vis.  viiid.;  3 
ould  cheeses,  iiiis. ;  Spent  in  Sir  Rand.  Barnes  chamber  to 
gett  singers,  iiid. ;  Spent  at  Rob.  Jones*  at  rehearse,  xixd. ; 
To  Wm.  Lutter  [minstrell]  at  generall  rehearse,  iiiid.  ob. ; 
6  crocks  of  alle  at  general  rehearse,  xs. ;  a  crocke  of  small 
ale  and  2  gallons,  xxd. ;  A  hoppe  of  wheate  to  the  general 
rehearse,  iis.  iiid.:  Bread  and  cakes  for  general  rehearse, 
iis.  viid. ;  Wine  to  the  said  rehearse,  iis.  viid. ;  For  another 
hoppe  of  Wheate  agayne  the  Whyttsontidde,  iis.  iiid.*^^ 

The  proportion  of  bread  and  ale  was  about  the 
same  at  Coventry,  too,  as  at  Chester.  The 
Coventry  smiths'  account  for  1490  has  the  follow- 
ing: 

Item  payd  at  the  Second  Reherse  in  Whyttson- 

weke  in  brede  Ale  &  kechyn     .     .     .     .     ijs    iiijd 
Inprimis  for  drynkynge  at  the  pagent  in  hav- 

inge  forthe  in  Wyne  &  ale vijd  ob. 

Item  for  ix  galons  of  Ale xviijd 

Item  for  a  Rybbe  of  befe  &  j  gose vjd 

Item  for  kechyn  to  denner  &  sopper     .     .     .     ijs  ijd 

Item  for  a  Rybbe  of  befe iijd 

Item   for  a  quarte  of  wyne ijd  ob. 

Item  for  an  other  quarte  for  heyrynge  of  proc- 

ula  is  gowne ijd   ob.^^ 

Places  for  the  Rehearsals.  The  pageant-mas- 
ter does  not  seem  to  have  had  any  definitely  re- 
served place  or  hall  for  holding  his  rehearsals,  but 
rather  to  have  taken  his  players  through  their  parts 

7®  Morris,   Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and   Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  305  n. 
7^  Sharp,  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  16. 


60       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

at  any  place  where  he  could  most  conveniently  get 
them  together.  In  1466  the  Coventry  smiths  held 
one  of  their  rehearsals  "  in  the  parke  ";  in  1576  at 
"  sent  marye  hall ";  in  1579  "  in  the  palys  " ;  and  in 
1584  "in  Seint  Nicholas  hall".  In  1570  the 
Coventry  weavers  held  "  ij  rehersys  in  pe  halle  ", 
as  if  referring  possibly  to  their  guild-hall.  At 
Chester,  as  we  have  seen  above,  the  rehearsals  ap- 
pear to  have  been  held  usually  at  the  homes  of  the 
players  themselves,  though  at  other  places  as  well, — 
"  at  Jo :  Huntington's  house  ",  "  in  barkers  ",  "  at 
Rob.  Jones'  ",  "  under  St.  John's  ",^«  etc. 

Other  Duties.  Nor  did  the  pageant-master's 
duties  end  with  the  selection  of  the  actors  and  the 
going  through  with  the  rehearsals.  He  must  see  to 
procuring  capable  singers  for  his  plays,  to  borrow- 
ing or  purchasing  suitable  costumes,  to  remodeling 
and  repainting  last  year's  pageant-wagon,  to  "  hav- 
ing it  out "  and  guarding  it  the  night  before  the 
celebration,  to  "  horsing  "  it  the  next  day,  and  to 
various  other  details  too  numerous  to  mention. 
These  matters  are  of  such  a  nature,  however,  that 
we  may  best  understand  them  by  postponing  the 
discussion  of  them  to  the  following  chapters. 

78  Morris,  Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and  Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  305  «. 


Ill 

THE  CORPUS   CHRISTI   PROCESSION 

Procession  and  Pageants.  The  Corpus  Christi 
procession,  as  we  have  seen,  was  first  established  at 
the  Council  of  Vienna  in  131 1,  but  we  have  no 
extant  record  of  the  time  when  the  observance  of 
the  day  was  first  introduced  into  England.  There 
is  the  same  uncertainty  about  the  time  when  the 
pageants  and  the  plays  first  became  a  part  of  the 
Corpus  Christi  ceremonies.  /Whether  the  cycles  of 
plays  grew  up  by  themselves~'and  were  then  trans- 
ferred to  Corpus  Christi  day  and  thus  became  more 
or  less  attached  to  the  procession,  or  whether  they 
developed  from  pageant  tableaux  and  dumb-shows 
in  the  annual  procession,  is  not  known,'  Davies 
thinks  it  "  not  improbable  that  the  celebration  of 
the  Corpus  Christi  Festival  on  its  first  mtroduction 
into  this  country  was  accompanied  by  the  exhibi- 
tion of  pageant  plays  produced^by  the  several  com- 
panies into  which  the  tradesmen  and  artisans  of 
cities  and  towns  were  then  incorporated  ".^  But 
(jhtve  is  a  strong  probability  that  the  later  Corpus 

1  York  Records,  p.  229. 

61 


62       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

Christi  cycles  began  in  the  procession  as  dumb- 
shows  designed  by  the  clergy  to  impress  more  forc- 
ibly on  the  people  the  doctrines  of  the  church,  and 
that  as  the  "  bas-relief  of  living  figures  counterfeit- 
ing a  bas-relief  of  stone  "  became  more  and  more 
popular,  the  earlier  Christmas,  Easter,  and  other 
biblical  plays  from  the  church  were  put  into  the 
mouths  of  the  mimetic  actors,  and  the  dramas  thus 
developed  became  the  later  Corpus  Christi  cycles^ 
Our  records  here  are  unfortunately  scrappy,  as 
usual,  but  what  evidence  we  have  seems  to  bear  out 
this  theory. 

Hour  for  Starting  the  Procession.  In  the 
early  years  of  the  Corpus  Christi  festival,  when 
the  procession  and  the  plays  were  all  one,  the  cere- 
monies of  the  day  seem  to  have  begun  at  an  early 
hour  in  the  morning.  The  early  beginning  was 
necessary  to  make  it  possible  to  give  the  whole  pro- 
gram in  one  day,  even  though  a  long  midsummer 
one.  What  the  exact  hour  was  in  the  earliest  years 
of  the  procession  we  do  not  know ;  but  at  York  in 
1415  it  was  "at  the  mydhowre  betwix  iiijth  and 
vth  of  the  cloke  in  the  mornynge  " ;  at  Coventry  it 
was  after  breakfast,  whatever  time  that  may  have 
been;  at  Lincoln  in  15 18  it  was  at  seven  o'clock  in 
the  morning;  and  at  Newcastle-on-Tyne  the  time 
was  the  same.  The  Newcastle  ordinance  of  the 
"  Felleship  of  Marchaunts  "  in  1480  is  so  specific 
and  so  exact  in  its  requirements  that  it  is  well  worth 
quoting : —  ^ 


CORPUS   CHRISTI    PROCESSION       63 

The  ackit  of  the  prosescion  of  Corpus  Christe  Day. 

Also  it  is  asentit,  accordit,  and  agreit,  by  the  said  Felle- 
ship,  in  aflfermyng  of  gwd  rewll  to  be  maid  and  had,  the 
whilk  hath  lang  tym  beyn  abused  emanks  thaym,  that 
wppon  Corpus  Christi  Day  yerly,  in  honoryng  and  wor- 
shippyng  of  the  solemp  procession,  every  man  of  the  said 
Felleship  beyng  within  the  franches  of  this  town  the  said 
day  as  it  shall  fall,  shalle  apper  in  the  Beer  Marcath  by 
vij  of  clok  in  the  mornyng,  but  he  haff  laytyng  by  in- 
fyrmyte,  other  ells  he  af  speciall  licanse  by  the  said  Mais- 
ter  of  the  said  Felleship,  wppon  payn  of  a  fin  by  the  de- 
fauters  to  be  paid  for  every  syke  defaute,  j  pond  wax  to 
the  Felleshep.  Also  that  thair  be  a  rowll  mayd  of  all  the 
names  of  the  same  Felleship,  for  the  said  procession,  and 
accordyng  to  that  rowll,  callyd  by  the  Clark,  the  lattast 
mayd  burges  to  go  formest  in  procession,  withoutyn  any 
contraryyng,  wppon  [oain]  of  forfeting  wnto  the  Felle- 
shipp,  for  every  sik  defawte,  xld.  Provyded  always  that 
all  those  of  the  said  Felleship  that  shalbe  Mair,  Shereff, 
and  aldermen,  with  thaire  officers  and  servandes,  than 
beyng,  attend  wppon  the  holy  sacramente.  Provydet  also, 
that  all  those  of  the  said  Felleship  that  as  beyn  maires, 
shereffs,  and  aldermen,  in  yerys  by  passyt,  shall  go  prin- 
cypall  in  the  sayd  solemp  procession,  accordyng  as  they 
war  chossen  into  the  sayd  officese.2 

Attendance  upon  the  Procession.  Attention 
should  be  called  here  to  two  things  in  this  ordinance 
from  Newcastle :  ( i )  that  attendance  upon  the  pro- 
cession was  by  this  time,  not  optional,  but  required ; 
and  (2)  that  the  position  of  each  man  in  the  line 
was  arranged  with  a  nice  regard  for  precedence  and 
etiquette.     In  the  earliest  years  of  the  observance 

2Dendy,  Newcastle  Merchant  Adventurers,  pp.  4-5. 


64       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

of  the  ceremony  it  may  have  been  that  a  person's 
presence  in  the  procession  was  regarded  as  an  evi- 
dence of  his  acceptance  of  the  dogma  of  transub- 
stantiation ;  ^  but  by  this  time,  1480,  when  the 
novelty  of  the  ceremony  had  somewhat  worn  oif, 
when  the  medieval  love  of  splendor  and  show  in 
pageantry  had  somewhat  dimmed  the  original  pur- 
pose of  the  procession,  and  when  men  had  conse- 
quently lost  much  of  their  pious  interest  in  the  ob- 
servance of  the  feast,  every  master  craftsman  of 
every  trade  was  required  both  by  guild  and  by  town 
ordinance  to  be  present  in  person  at  the  beginning 
of  the  procession.  Later,  moreover,  when  the  re- 
ligious interest  had  still  further  waned  and  "  the 
spontaneous  expressions  of  piety  "  had  failed  to 
satisfy  the  desire  for  a  brilliant  procession,  not  only 
the  master  craftsmen,  but  the  journeymen  trades- 
men, and  even  the  hirelings,  were  enjoined  to  be 
present.  And  in  the  last  days  of  the  festival 
strangers  were  admitted  into  the  procession  in 
many  of  the  towns  and  hirelings  allowed  to  take 
one's  place,  provided  the  proper  livery  was  worn. 
Etiquette  in  the  Procession.  In  the  second 
place,  it  is  to  be  nojted  in  the  Newcastle  ordinance 
quoted  above  thatjjhe  members  of  each  craft  were 
required  to  march  in  a  strict  order  of  precedence 
according  to  seniority,  y "  the  lattast  mayd  burges 
to  go  formest  in  procession".    And  as  among  the 

3  Smith,    English   Gilds,   p.   Ixxxv ;    Davidson,   English 
Mystery  Plays,  p.  92. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   PROCESSION      65 

craftsmen,  so  among  the  guilds,  the  various  com- 
panies took  rank  over  each  other  according  to  age. 
The  place  of  honor  was  that  nearest  the  host,  and 
all  the  craftsmen  were  jealous  in  the  extreme  of 
their  places,  so  much  so  that  their  order  had  to  be 
solemnly  regulated  by  the  town  council.  Even  the 
aldermen,  however,  could  not  always  satisfy  their 
brethren,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  frequent  repeti- 
tions of  laws  regulating  the  order  of  the  procession 
and  imposing  heavy  fines  for  failure  to  compl;^ 

A  remarkable  instance  of  this  failure  of  the  city 
fathers  to  satisfy  their  fellow  craftsmen  is  handed 
down  to  us  from  York  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII, 
when  a  dispute  on  a  point  of  etiquette  in  the  pro- 
cession became  so  serious  in  the  town  as  to  threaten 
disastrous  results.  "  The  contending  parties  were 
the  Company  of  Weavers  and  the  Company  of 
Cordwainers ;  and  the  important  question  to  be  de- 
cided was,  whether  the  weavers  or  the  cordwainers 
were  entitled  to  walk  on  the  right  hand  in  the 
Corpus  Christi  procession.  The  quarrel  com- 
menced prior  to  the  accession  of  Henry  VII.  and 
was  occasioned  by  an  order  of  the  council  requiring 
the  cordwainers,  with  their  fourteen  torches,  to  go 
on  the  weavers'  left  hand.  The  cordwainers  re- 
garded this  as  a  dishonorable  position,  and  were  so 
indignant  at  the  preference  shewn  to  the  weavers, 
that,  rather  than  comply  with  the  order,  they  re- 
fused for  several  years  to  take  any  part  at  all  in  the 
procession." 


66       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

The  authorities  of  the  town,  however,  finally 
realized  that  such  a  bad  example  as  this  could  not 
be  allowed  to  pass  unnoticed;  so  when  the  cord- 
wainers  were  again  *  rebell  and  disobeaunt'  at  Cor- 
pus Christi  day,  1490,  the  town  council  with  *  Mais- 
ter  Tresorer  of  the  Cathedral  Church  of  York'  as- 
sembled together  in  solemn  conference  "  and  fully 
determined  that  the  penalty  of  iio  incurred  by  the 
cordwainers  for  their  offense,  should  be  paid,  *  and 
all  such  other  punyshment  of  person  of  the  said 
cordwainers  for  non-payment  of  the  same,  should 
be  as  provided/  "  The  magnitude  of  the  trouble 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  council  further  deter- 
mined to  write  for  advice  to  the  king,  to  the  lord 
chancellor,  to  the  Earl  of  Derby,  and  to  any  others 
thought  necessary. 

This  action,  however,  seems  only  to  have  pro- 
voked the  company  of  cordwainers  "  to  further  re- 
sistance, in  which  they  were  encouraged  by  a  fac- 
tious party  in  the  city.  A  few  days  afterwards  it 
was  reported  to  the  council  that  Sir  Thomas  Grib- 
thorpe,  a  priest,  was  overheard  by  another  priest  to 
say,  that  '  there  shold  be  two  hundred  men  that 
were  no  shomakers,  to  tak  the  part  of  shomakers, 
an  thai  myght  gett  a  furiouse  man  to  set  thame 
apon  wark,'  and  that  the  said  shomakers  *  wold 
spend  large  money  or  the  Maior  and  his  brethern 
shold  opteigne  aganest  thame.'  Another  person 
heard  the  same  Sir  Thomas  say,  *  that  there  wold 
be  three  or  four  hundred  men  not  being  sowtors, 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   PROCESSION      67 

that  wold  name  thame  self  sowtors  and  tak  the 
part  with  the  sowtors,  as  if  thai  myght  get  a  capi- 
tan  to  set  thame  apon  werk,  they  shold  strike  their 
adversaries  down.' " 

For  some  reason  not  known  to  us  now  the  coun- 
cil failed  to  follow  up  its  threat  of  punishment  that 
year,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  following 
February  a  letter  was  had  from  the  king's  own 
hand  advising  the  council  to  continue  "  the  olde 
usages  ".  This  seems  to  have  settled  the  question 
temporarily;  for  the  minutes  of  1491  contain  no 
reference  to  the  trouble.  But  the  good  behavior  of 
the  cordwainers  was  not  of  long  duration.  "  On 
the  first  of  June,  1492,  the  council  deemed  it  nec- 
essary to  re-enact  their  ancient  ordinances,  by 
which  the  members  of  the  corporation,  and  every 
gild,  fraternity,  art  and  occupation,  were  required 
to  bear  their  accustomed  number  of  torches  in  the 
procession  under  the  penalties  formerly  imposed; 
and  they  again  determined  that  the  cordwainers 
should  walk  on  the  left  hand  of  the  weavers. 
Again  the  cordwainers  were  disobedient;  and  on 
the  28th  of  June  the  council  ordered  that  '  all  such 
forfetts  as  be  forfett  for  beryng  of  torches  the 
morn  aftir  Corpus  Xpi  day  last  past,  accordyng  to 
old  ordinaunces  theruppon  provided,  shuld  be 
leveed  and  rased  withoute  pardon,  that  is  to  say,  of 
Roger  Appulby,  one  of  the  xxiiijti,  xls,  of  William 
Barker,  merchaunt,  another  of  the  xxiiijti,  xls ;  and 
of  the  artificers  of   Cordwaners  xli,   for  nown- 


68       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

beryng  of  their  torcheg,  accordyng  to  diverse  old 
ordinaunceg  '. 

"  Having  thus  asserted  their  authority,  the  coun- 
cil showed  a  disposition  to  conciliate  the  parties, 
and  a  few  days  afterwards  they  recommended  the 
cordwainers  to  go  to  the  weavers,  '  to  th'entent  that 
a  lovyng  communication  betwix  theym  might  be 
had,  and  uppon  such  communication  had,  if  the 
said  occupations  could  be  agreed  of  the  premissej, 
then  thay  to  cume  to-fore  the  maire  and  his  coun- 
seil,  and  gif  a  awnswere  of  the  said  communication 
wheder  thai  be  agreid  or  noo,  and  if  thai  cannott 
be  agreable  emonst  tham-selffe,  than  the  maire  and 
the  councel  for  to  tak  such  ordre  betwix  thame  as 
tham  should  be  most  exspedient  in  that  behalve/ 
After  several  months  had  passed,  the  cordwainers 
submitted,  and  the  searchers  with  some  of  the 
■principal  members  of  the  craft  appeared  person- 
ally in  the  council  chamber,  and  '  ther  laye  down 
in  a  purse  ensealed  x/i,  whiche  they  had  forfet  for 
nown-beryng  of  theyr  torches  the  morn  after 
Corpus  Xpi  day  last  past,  puttyng  the  said  x/i  in 
the  will  and  discretions  of  the  counseill,  besechyng 
my  lord  the  maier  to  be  theyr  good  and  tendre 
lord,  and  al  my  maisters  the  aldermen  and  other 
of  the  counseill,  good  and  tendre  maisters,  and  not 
to  take  al  that  mony  of  theym,  haveing  in  theyr 
discret  and  tendre  consideration  that  the  cause  of 
their  nown-beryng  was  only  in  John  Crak  and  John 
Smyth,  two  of  ther  serssors,  and  not  the  defaut  of 


CORPUS    CHRISTI    PROCESSION      69 

the  hole  crafft,  as  they  had  shewed  diverse  and 
mony  tymes  hertofore.' " 

Whether  the  *'  good  and  tendre  maisters  "  took 
all  the  cordwainers'  ten  pounds  is  not  told  us,  but 
in  the  minutes  of  the  following  year,  May,  1493,  it 
was  recorded  that  the  craft  of  cordwainers  *  when 
the  procession  were  solempnely  done  the  morowe 
next  after  Corpus  Xpi  day,  [were]  to  here  their 
torches  honestly  made  and  lighted,  with  the  craft 
of  the  weavers  and  going  of  the  weavers'  left 
handes,  as  had  been  there  afore  acustomed  '.* 

Development  of  the  Plays.  [^In  the  earliest 
processions  the  lay  societies  seem  usually  to  have 
preceded  the  sacrament,  while  the  clergy  followed. 
Certainly  this  was  the  order  of  the  processions  at 
Coventry  and  Newcastle,  though  at  York  the  crafts 
were  put  last.  In  this  shift  of  the  trades  com- 
panies from  the  front  to  the  rear  may  be  seen,  it  is 
suggested,*  one  bit  of  evidence  in  favor  of  the 
growth  of  the  Corpus  Christi  plays  from  dumb- 
show  pageants  in  the  procession,  since  the  pageants 
were  usually  presented  by  the  craftsmeiU  (_5o"^e" 
time  shortly  after  the  confirmation  of  the  Corpus 
Christi  feast  in  England,  it  is  thought,  pageants 
representing  stories  from  the  Bible  were  intro- 
duced by  the  trades  companies,  who  had  so  far 
been  present  in  the  procession  with  their  guild  ban- 
ners only.     These  pageants  at  first  were  mimetic 

*Davies,  York  Records,  pp.  250-7. 

s  Davidson,  English  Mystery  Plays,  p.  93. 


70       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

merely  and  seem  to  have  been  presented  in  the 
procession  while  moving.  In  a  short  time,  hoW^ 
ever,  spoken  drama,  which  had  already  begun  in 
the  church,_was  introduced  into  the  Corpus  Christi 
pageanSJ  l^^^^  spoken  drama  could  be  successfully 
given  only  during  the  halts  at  the  stations,  and 
therefore  caused  great  delay  for  the  clergy  and 
other  members  of  the  procession  following.  In 
order  to  avoid  this  extension  of  the  procession  to 
an  unreasonable  length  of  time  the  plays  were 
transferred  from  the  front  of  the  procession  to  the 
rear,  a  move  which  soon  created  a  division  be- 
tween the  two  parts  because  of  the  slower  progress 
of  the  pageants.  Yet,  because  of  the  inherited 
custom  of  following  the  course  of  the  host,  the 
plays,  even  after  their  separation  from  the  proces- 
sion proper,  continued  to  follow  the  traditional 
course.  "  Such,"  says  Davidson,  "  seems  to  be  a 
reasonable  interpretation  of  the  facts  as  presented 
by  the  records  ".^ 

Beverley  Mimetic  Pageants.  Let  us  look, 
however,  at  some  of  the  scattering  records  which 
bear  out  this  theory  of  the  growth  of  the  Corpus 
Christi  plays  in  the  procession.  One  of  the 
earliest  is  an  entry  of  a  mimetic  pageant  at 
Beverley  in  1355.  This  record  states  that  "  every 
year,  on  the  feast  of  the  Purification  of  the  blessed 
Mary,  all  the  bretheren  and  sisteren  [of  the  Guild 
of  St.  Mary]  shall  meet  together  in  a  fit  and  ap- 

«  Loc.  cit.,  p.  94. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   PROCESSION      71 

pointed  place,  away  from  the  church ;  and  there, 
one  of  the  gild  shall  be  clad  in  comely  fashion  as 
a  queen,  like  to  the  glorious  Virgin  Mary,  having 
what  may  seem  a  son  in  her  arms ;  and  two  others 
shall  be  clad  like  to  Joseph  and  Simeon;  and  two 
shall  go  as  angels,  carrying  a  candle-bearer,  on 
which. shall  be  twenty- four  thick  wax  lights.  With 
these  and  other  great  lights  borne  before  them,  and 
with  much  music  and  gladness,  the  pageant  Virgin 
with  her  son,  and  Joseph  and  Simeon,  shall  go  in 
procession  to  the  church.  And  all  the  sisteren  of 
the  gild  shall  follow  the  Virgin;  and  afterwards 
all  the  bretheren;  and  each  of  them  shall  carry  a 
wax  light  weighing  half  a  pound.  And  they  shall 
go  two  and  two,  slowly  pacing  to  the  church;  and 
when  they  have  got  there,  the  pageant  Virgin  shall 
offer  her  son  to  Simeon  at  the  high  altar;  and  all 
the  sisteren  and  bretheren  shall  offer  their  wax 
lights,  together  with  a  penny  each.  All  this  having 
been  solemnly  done,  they  shall  go  home  again  with 
gladness." ''  This,  it  is  to  be  noted,  is  a  mimetic 
pageant  of  the  feast  of  the  Purification  rather  than 
of  Corpus  Christi,  but  it  may  be  taken  as  resem- 
bling very  closely  similar  pageants  in  the  Corpus 
Christi  procession. 

Dundee.  LFrom  Dundee  comes  also  a  record 
of  dumb-show  pageants.  This  gives  "  The  Grayth 
of  the  Prossession  of  Corpus  Christi,  deliverit  Sir 
Thomas  Barbour  "  as  follows :     "  In  primis  xxiij 

^  Smith,  English  Gilds,  pp.  149-50. 


72       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

of  crownis,  vij  Pair  of  angel  reynis,  iij  Myteris, 
Cristi  cott  of  lethyr,  with  the  hosse  and  gluffis, 
Cristis  hed,  xxxj  Suerdis,  Thre  lang  corssis  of  tre, 
Sane  Thomas  Sper,  A  cors  til  Sane  Blasis,  Sane 
Johnnis  cott,  A  credil,  &  thre  barnis  maid  of  cloth, 
XX  Hedis  of  hayr.  The  four  evangellistis.  Sane 
Katrinis  quheil.  Sane  Androwis  cros,  A  saw,  a  ax, 
a  rassour,  a  guly  knyff.  A'  worm  of  tre,  Sane 
Barbill  castel,  Abraamis  hat  &  thre  hedis  of 
hayr.'^ 

Dublin.  (At  Dublin,  too,  in  1478  we  hear  of  a 
similar  series  of  pageant-tableaux  on  Corpus 
Christi  day.  The  record  is  found  in  the  Chain 
Book  of  the  city  and  was  apparently  entered  in 
1498:— 

The  pagentis  of  Corpus  Christi  day,  made  by  an  olde 
law  and  confermed  by  a  semble  befor  Thomas  Collier, 
Maire  of  the  Citte  of  Divelin,  and  Juries,  Baliffes  and 
commones,  the  iiiith  Friday  next  after  midsomer,  the  xiii. 
yere  of  the  reign  of  King  Henri  the  VII th  [1498] : 

Glovers:  Adam  and  Eve,  with  an  angill  followyng 
berryng  a  swerde.    Peyn,  xl.s. 

Corvisers:  Caym  and  Abell,  with  an  auter  and  the 
ofference.    Peyn,  xl.^. 

Maryners,  Vynters,  Shipcarpynderis,  and  Samoun- 
takers:  Noe,  with  his  shipp,  apparalid  acordyng.  Peyn, 
xl.^. 

Wevers:  Abraham  [and]  Ysack,  with  ther  auter  and  a 
lambe  and  ther  offerance.    Peyn,  xl.s. 

Smythis,  Shermen,  Bakers,  Sclateris,  Cokis  and 
Masonys:  Pharo,  with  his  hoste.    Peyn,  xls, 

8  Maxwell,  Old  Dundee,  p.  562.    . 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   PROCESSION      73 

Skynners,  House-Carpynders,  and  Tanners,  and  Browd- 
ers:  for  the  body  of  the  camell,  and  Oure  Lady  and  hir 
chil[d]e  well  aperelid,  with  Joseph  to  lede  the  camell,  and 
Moyses  with  the  children  of  Israeli,  and  the  Portors  to 
berr  the  camell.  Peyn,  xl.s.  and  Steyners  and  Peyntors 
to  peynte  the  hede  of  the  camell.     [Peyn,]  xl.^. 

[Goldsmyjthis:  The  three  kynges  of  Collynn,  ridyng 
worshupfully,  with  the  offerance,  with  a  sterr  afor  them. 
Peyn,  xls. 

[Hoopers]:  The  shep[er]dis,  with  an  Angill  syngyng 
Gloria  in  excelsis  Deo.    Peyn,  x\.s. 

Corpus  Christi  yild :  Criste  in  his  Passioun,  with  three 
Maries,  and  angilis  berring  serges  of  wex  in  ther  hands. 
[Peyn,]  xl.^. 

Taylors:  Pilate,  with  his  fellaship,  and  his  lady  and 
his  knyghtes,  well  beseyne.     Peyn,  xl.s. 

Barbors:  An[nas]  and  Caiphas,  well  araied  acordyng. 
[Peyn,]  xl.^. 

Courteours:    Arthure,  with  [his]  knightes.     Peyn,  xl.s. 

Fisshers :    The  Twelve  Apostelis.    Peyn,  xl..f. 

Marchauntes:    The  Prophetis.     Peyn,  xl.s. 

Bouchers:  tormentours,  with  ther  garmentis  well  and 
clenly  peynted.     [Peyn,]  xl.s. 

The  Maire  of  the  Bulring  and  bachelers  of  the  same: 
The  Nine  Worthies  ridyng  worshupfully,  with  ther  fol- 
lowers accordyng.     Peyn,  xl.s. 

The  Hagardmen  and  the  husbandmen  to  berr  the 
dragoun  and  to  repaire  the  dragoun  a  Seint  Georges  day 
and  Corpus  Christi  day.    Peyn,  xl.s^j 

Development  from  the  Dumb-Shows.     In  all 

of  these  cases,  it  is  to  be  noted,  the  actors  were  in 
the  procession  in  character,  and  it  is  to  be  supposed 
that  they  conveyed  the  message  of  their  pageants 

^Chambers,  Mediaeval  Stage,  ii.  363-4. 


74       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS' 

by  action  only;  L  e.,  without  words,  something  in 
the  manner  of  the  Canterbury  Watch,  where  the 
martyrdom  of  St.  Thomas  a  Becket  was  repre- 
sented annually  in  mute  drama.^°  That  this  was 
the  custom  at  Dublin  may  be  conjectured  with 
some  degree  of  certainty,  since,  in  the  case  of  the 
hoopers,  the  one  representing  the  angel  was  re- 
quired to  sing  the  Gloria  during  the  course  of  the 
procession.  But  whether  or  not  any  attempt  was 
made  to  talk  while  walking  seems  impossible  to 
tell ;  possibly  so.  But  no  English  record  has  come 
down  to  us,  though  at  Draguignan,  France,  we 
learn  of  such  a  custom  in  the  Corpus  Christi  pro- 
cession : — 

Le  dit  Jeu  Jora  avec  la  procession  comme  auparadvant 
et  le  plus  d'istoeres  et  plus  brieves  que  puront  estre  seront 
et  se  dira  tout  en  cheminant  sans  ce  que  personne  du  jeu 
s'areste  pour  eviter  prolixite  et  confusion  tant  de  ladite 
prosession  que  jeu,  et  que  les  estrangiers  le  voient  aise- 
ment.ii 
[TAny  such  attempt  to  talk,  or  even  to  carry  on  con- 
nected pantomimic  action,  while'  in  motion  must 
necessarily  have  been  accomplished  only  with  great 
difficulty  and  must  have  resulted  in  the  station 
halts.  These  halts  in  turn  prolonged  the  proces- 
sion too  much  for  some  of  the  members  and  neces- 
sitated the  transference  of  the  embryonic  cycle  of 
plays  to  the  rear.  Yet  the  mere  act  of  shifting  the 
plays  to  the  rear  gave  the  actors  more  time  for 

10  Compare  Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  ix.  i,  148. 

11  Petit  de  Julleville,  Les  Mysthes,  ii.  209. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI    PROCESSION      75 

their  scenes  and  possibly   resulted  in   developing 
and  perfecting  the  cycje^ 

Spirit  of  the  Festival.  Of  course  the  author 
does  not  claim  that  either  this  theory  thus  ad- 
vanced or  the  records  cited  to  support  it  prove  the 
development  of  the  Corpus  Christi  cycles  from 
tableaux  in  the  procession,  but  only  that  the  prob- 
ability of  such  an  origin  is  strong.  Probably  this 
theory  can  never  be  either  proved  or  disproved; 
for  none  of  our  extant  records  give  more  than  the 
merest  hints  as  to  the  growth  of  the  plays.  In 
one  year  they  are  unknown;  in  the  next  we  find 
them  full-fledged  dramas  and  the  principal  part  of 
the  Corpus  Christi  celebration.  For  by  the  time 
our  first  records  mention  the  plays  in  connection 
with  the  procession  the  festival  has  lost  most  of  its 
significance  as  a  religious  celebration  and  has  be- 
come a  day  for  feasting  and  eating  as  well  as  for 
psalm  singing ;  men  have  come  to  seek^  not  only  the 
thousand  days  of  pardon,  but  a  holiday  as  well. 
It  is  a  feast  that  "  shall  be  held  on  the  festival  of 
Corpus  Christi ;  and,  on  each  day  of  the  feast,  they 
shall  have  three  flagons,  and  four  or  six  tankards; 
and  ale  shall  be  given  to  the  poor;  and  prayers 
shall  be  said  over  the  flagons  ".^^  And  "  every 
householder  that  dwellith  in  the  hye  way  ther  as 
the  procession  procedith,  shall  hang  before  ther 
doores  and  forefrontes  beddes  and  coverynges  of 
beddes  of  the  best  that  thay  can  gytt,  and  strewe 

1-  Records  of  the  Tiler's  Gild,  Lincoln,  in  Smith's  Eitg^ 
lish  Gilds,  p.  184. 


76        CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

before  ther  doores  resshes  and  other  suche  flowers 
and  strewing  as  they  thynke  honeste  and  clenly  for 
the  honour  of  Godd  and  worship  of  this  citie  ".^^ 
Separation  of  the  Plays  from  the  Procession. 
Such  regulations  as  these  imply  that  the  festal 
spirit  was  uppermost ;  and  it  was  this  holiday  spirit 
that  caused  the  final  separation  of  procession  and 
plays.  Already,  no  doubt,  a  division  had  arisen 
between  the  two  sections  of  the  procession  because 
of  the  slower  progress  of  the  pageants,  but  it  re- 
mained for  the  secular  element  to  effect  the  com- 
plete separation;  for  as  the  festival  grew  in  im- 
portance and  the  holiday  spirit  began  to  prevail, 
there  gradually  developed  a  wider  and  wider 
divergence  between  the  purely  spiritual  and  the 
secular  elements  in  the  celebration.  The  result 
was  that;  the  plays  and  the  procession  had  to  be 
separated  entirely.  At  Newcastle-on-Tyne  the 
procession  took  place  in  the  morning  and  the  plays 
were  given  in  the  afternoon.  At  Beverley  they 
were  both  on  the  same  day,  but  apparently  at  dif- 
ferent times.  At  Chester  the  procession  was  at  the 
regular  Corpus  Christi  feast,  the  plays  at  Whit- 
suntide. And  at  York,  where  we  have  our  fullest 
accounts  of  the  clash  between  procession  and  plays, 
the  former  had  to  be  postponed  until  the  day  after 
Corpus  Christi  J  on  account  of  the  "  revellings, 
drunkenness,  clamour,  singing,  and  other  impro- 
prieties "  which  caused  the  people  to  lose  "  the 

18  Davies,  York  Records,  p.  247  n. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   PROCESSION      17 

benefit  of  the  indulgences  graciously  conceded  by 
Pope  Urban  IV.  to  those  who  duly  attended  the 
religious  services  appointed  by  the  canons  ".^* 

Order  of  the  Procession.  To  return,  however, 
to  the  procession  proper :  The  line  was  formed,  as 
we  have  seen  above,  at  an  early  hour  in  the  morn- 
ing, the  time  varying  in  the  different  towns.  Each 
man  had  his  individual  position  in  the  procession 
assigned  according  to  his  rank.  In  the  earliest 
days  the  craftsmen  led  the  procession  and  the 
ecclesiastics  followed,  but  later  this  order  was  re- 
versed. After  this  change  in  the  early  order,  we 
are  told  of  the  procession  at  York  that  a  boy 
usually  led  the  line,  bearing  in  his  hands  a  great 
cross.  He  was  dressed  "  al  in  Whyte  "  and  was 
followed  immediately  by  the  town  clergy  in  white 
surplices.  The  ecclesiastics  were  followed  in  turn 
by  the  master  of  the  Corpus  Christi  guild,  who 
was  supported  on  each  side  by  a  former  guild-mas- 
ter and  was  followed  by  the  six  wardens  of  the 
guild,  each  carrying  a  white  wand  and  wearing  a 
silken  stole  around  his  neck.  Next  came  the  costly 
shrine,  or  pyx,  of  the  Corpus  Christi  guild,  which, 
with  all  its  contents,  was  valued  in  1547  at  £210 
1 8.?.  2d. 

The  Shrine.  This  shrine,  probably  one  of  the 
most  attractive  features  of  the  procession,  was  a 
gift  to  the  guild  in  1449  from  the  Bishop  of  Here- 
ford.    It  acquired  its  wealth  from  the  donations  of 

1*  Davies,  York  Records,  p.  243. 


78       CORPUS   CHRISTl   PAGEANTS 

pious  members  of  the  guild  and  the  parish.  Of 
this  shrine  the  following  minute  description  was 
given  in  1547  when  it  came  to  be  sold: 

First,  the  said  shryne  is  all  gilte,  havyng  6  ymagcs 
gylded,  with  an  ymage  of  the  birthe  of  our  Lord,  of 
mother  of  perle,  sylver  and  gylt,  and  33  small  ymages 
ennamyled  stondyng  aboute  same,  and  a  tablett  of  golde; 
2  golde  rynges,  one  with  a  safure,  and  the  other  with  a 
perle,  and  8  other  little  ymages,  and  a  great  tablett  of 
golde  havyng  in  yt  the  ymage  of  our  Lady,  of  mother  of 
perle;  which  shryne  conteyneth  in  lenght  3  quarters  of  a 
yerd  and  a  nayle,  and  in  brede  a  quarter  di.  and  more, 
and  in  height  di.  yerd,  over  and  besides  the  steple  stond- 
yng upon  the  same,    .    .    . 

The  said  steple  havyng  a  whether  cokke  thereuppon,  all 
gylte,  and  a  ryall  of  golde,  4  olde  nobles,  2  gylted  grootes 
hangyng  upon  the  said  steple,  and  also  beyng  within  the 
same  steple  a  berall,  wheryn  the  sacrament  is  borne, 
havyng  in  the  said  berall  2  ymages  or  angells  of  sylver  and 
gylt,  bcryng  up  the  said  sacrament,  the  foote  and  coveryng 
of  whiche  saide  berall  is  sylver  and  gylte,  weyng  togeder, 
with  the  golde  and  berall,  besides  the  said  shryne,  181 
onzes.    .    .    . 

A  sylver  bell  hangyng  in  the  said  steple,  weyng  3  onzes 
and  di.15 

This  shrine  was  borne  by  two  of  the  guild- 
wardens,  two  others  of  whom  kept  the  crowd  in 
order.  At  Coventry  it  was  sheltered  with  "  A 
canope  of  silk  brodured  with  gold  with  ij  side^  of 
the  same  "  carried  by  "  iiij  burgesses  ".    At  Coven- 

^^  Skaiie,  Guild  of  the  Corpus  Christi,  York,  pp.  296-7. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   PROCESSION      79 

try^  too,  six  children  were  paid  by  the  St.  Nicholas 
and  Corpus  Christi  guilds  one  year  "  for  beryng  vj 
torches  by  the  Sacrament "  and  four  men  were 
employed  "  to  here  the  iiij  gret  torches  ".^*  Then 
came  the  choristers  in  white  surplices,  chanting  the 
services  assigned  for  the  day. 

City  Officials.  After  the  host  came  on  horse- 
back the  Lord  Mayor,  who  at  Coventry  wore  "  a 
Crown  of  sylver  &  gyld  ".  "  Mr.  Maior  "  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  aldermen  and  other  city  officers,  "  too 
and  too  together ",  all  fittingly  arrayed  in  their 
most  splendid  ceremonial  robes  and  bearing  their 
required  number  of  wax  torches.  In  1572  the 
splendor  of  the  pageantry  was  increased  by  an 
order  for  the  sheriffs  "  to  ryde  with  harnessed  men 
accordyng  to  the  ancient  custome,  and  every  alder- 
man to  fynde  sex  men,  wherof  iiij  to  be  in  white 
armour,  and  ij  in  coates  of  plate,  and  every  of  the 
xxiiijor  to  fynd  iiij  men,  wherof  ij  to  be  in  white 
armour,  and  ij  with  calevers,  towerds  the  said 
rydyng  ".^^ 

Craftsmen.  The  city  officials  were  succeeded 
by@e  craftsmen)]  who,  as  stated  above,ffobk  their 
places  according  to  a  legally  prescribeciorder  of 
precedence,  which,  by  the  time  our  earliest  extant 
records  reach  us,  seems  to  have  been  fixed  accord- 
ing to  the  date  of  the  guild  formation.  At  Bever- 
ley the  order  was  as  follows : 

i«  Sharp,  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  162. 
^"^  Davies,  york  Records,  pp.  269-70. 


80       CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

In  primis    the  xij  Governors.    Item,  Alderman  of  Wevers 
Item,  Alderman  of   Merchants  "  Walkers 

"  Drapers  "  Glovers 

"  Bowchers  "  Bowers 

"  Baxters  "  Cowpers 

"  Wryghts  and 

"  Smyths  Fletchers 

"  Taylors  **  Wattermen 

"  Tylers  "  Potters 

"  Shomakers  "  Barbors 

**  Lyttsters  "  Cappers 

**  Barkers  and 

Hattera, 
Sadyllers(g! 

It  is  noticeable  here  that  only  the  aldermen  of 
the  guilds  were  allowed  in  the  procession  and  that 
the  merchants'  alderman  came  first  in  the  line. 
At  Coventry,  however,  where  the  laity  preceded 
the  shrine,  we  find  the  order  reversed  and  the 
mercers,  the  oldest  company  in  that  city  too,  coming 
last:— 

Pur  le  Ridyng  on  Corpus  Christi  day  and  for  Watche 
on  Midsomer  even. 

The  furst  craft,  ffyshers  and  Cokes.  Baxsters  and 
Milners.  Bochers.  Whittawers  and  Glouers.  Pynners, 
Tylers  and  Wrightes.  Skynners.  Barkers.  Coruisers. 
Smythes.  Weuers.  Wirdrawers.  Cardmakers,  Sadelers, 
Peyntours  and  Mason[s].  Gurdeiers.  Taylours,  Walkers 
and  Sherman.    Deysters.    Drapers.    Mercers^ 

At  Coventry  the  tradesmen  followed  their  torches, 
the  bearers  of  which  wore  white  surplices.  Here, 
as  everywhere  else,  the  craftsmen  were  dressed  in 
their  guild  Hvery ;  and  it  is  suggested  by  Mr.  A.  F. 
Leach  ^°  that  the  origin  of  such  liveries,  which 
were  compulsory — as,  for  that  matter,  were  the 

^tJist  MSS  Comm.,  Beverley  MSS,  p.  69. 
^'Harris,  Coventry  Leet  Book,  p.  220. 
^Beverley  Town  Documents,  p.  Iviii. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   PROCESSION      81 

banners  and  torches  which  the  craftsmen  carried, — 
may  perhaps  have  been  connected  with  these  rehg- 
ious  functions. 

Players  in  the  Procession.  Along  with  each 
company  of  craftsmen,  of  course,  went  their 
pageants  and  their  actors,  both  of  whom  continued 
to  hold  their  accustomed  places  in  the  rear  of  the 
procession  even  after  the  complete  separation  of 
the  plays  and  their  postponement  to  other  dates. 
Indeed,  this  preliminary  parade  of  the  players  and 
the  pageant-cars  in  later  times  seems  to  have 
served  often  as  an  advance  advertisement  of  what 
was  to  be  found  in  the  plays  of  the  afternoon,  or 
the  next  day,  or  the  following  Whitson  week.  At 
Lincoln  in  15 15  the  players  not  only  were  required 
to  go  in  character  in  the  procession,  but  constables 
were  stationed  "  to  wait  upon  the  array  in  proces- 
sion, both  to  keep  the  people  from  the  array,  and 
also  to  take  heed  of  such  as  wear  garments  in  the 
same  ".^^  (At  Coventry,  too,  though  the  pageant- 
wagons  do  not  seem  to  have  passed  in  procession, 
the  actors  themselves  were  present.  Herod  was 
there  on  horseback  and  in  painted  garments. 
Mary,  "  Katryne  &  Margaret  ",  and  "  viij  virgyns  " 
were  represented;  Gabriel  was  paid  4d.  for 
"  beryng  the  lilly  " ;  and  James,  Thomas  of  India, 
and  "  X  other  apostells "  were  paid  for  bearing 
torches^^And  the  great  gilded  pageant-wagons 

21  Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  xiv.  8,  25. 
22)Sharo,  Coventry  Mysteries,  pp.  162  ff. 


82       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

enriched  the  procession  with  their  flags,  garlands, 
and  banners.  But  these  are  of  so  much  importance 
to  the  present  study  that  it  will  be  necessary  to 
take  them  up  separately  in  the  next  chapter. 


IV 

THE   PAGEANTS 

The  Pageant- Wagon.  The  general  appearance 
and  characteristic  features  of  the  Corpus  Christi 
pageant-cars  have  been  familiar  for  scores  of 
years  through  the  accounts  of  Dugdale,  Rogers, 
and  others.  Perhaps  the  best  description  is  that 
of  Rogers,  who  says  of  the  Whitsun  plays  at 
Chester  that  they  were  presented  on  "  a  high 
scaffolde  with  two  rowmes,  a  higher  and  a  lower, 
upon  four  wheeles  [in  another  MS.  six  wheeles]. 
In  the  lower  they  apparelled  themselves,  and  in  the 
higher  rowme  they  played,  beinge  all  open  on  the 
tope,  that  all  behoulders  might  heare  and  see  them. 
The  places  where  they  played  them  was  in  every 
streete.  They  begane  first  at  the  abay  gates,  and 
when  the  firste  pagiante  was  played,  it  was  wheeled 
to  the  highe  crosse  before  the  maior,  and  so  to 
every  streete  [i.  e.,  the  four  principal  streets,  the 
order  being  ist  Watergate,  2nd  Bridge  Street],  and 
soe  every  streete  had  a  pagiante  playinge  before 
them  at  one  time,  till  all  the  pagiantes  for  the  day 

83 


84       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

appointed  weare  played.  And  when  one  pagiant 
was  neere  ended,  worde  was  broughte  from  streete 
to  streete,  that  soe  they  mighte  come  in  place 
thereof,  exceedinge  orderlye,  and  all  the  streetes 
have  theire  pagiantes  afore  them  all  at  one  time 
playeinge  together;  to  see  which  playes  was  greate 
resorte,  and  also  scafoldes  and  stages  made  in 
those  places  where  they  determined  to  playe  theire^ 
pagiantes."^ 

Dugdale's  Statement.  Dugdale,  too,  says  of 
the  plays  at  Coventry :  "  Before  the  suppression 
of  the  monasteries,  this  city  of  Coventry  was  very 
famous  for  the  pageants  that  were  played  therein 
upon  Corpus  Christi  day,  which  occasioning  very 
great  confluence  of  people  to  it  from  far  and  near, 
were  of  no  gmall  benefit  thereto;  which  pageants 
being  acted  with  mighty  state  and  reverence  by  the 
friers  of  this  house,  had  theatres  for  the  several 
scenes,  very  large  and  high,  placed  upon  wheeles, 
and  drawn  to  all  the  eminent  parts  of  the  city,  for 
the  better  advantage  of  the  spectators  ".^ 

Strutt's  Description.  Strutt,  however,  in  his 
Manners  and  Customs  (1776)  gives  a  very  differ- 
ent description  of  these  stages.  "  In  the  early 
dawn  of  literature ",  says  he,  "  and  when  the 
sacred  mysteries  were  the  only  theatrical  perform- 
ances, what  is  now  called  the  stage  did  then  con- 
sist of  three  several  platforms,  or  stages  raised  one 

1  Quoted  in  Morris,  Chester  during  the  Plan  tag enet  and 
Tudor  Reigns,  pp.  303-4. 

2  Dugdale,  Monastic  on  Anglicanum,  vi.  3.  1534- 


THE   PAGEANTS  85 

above  another;  on  the  uppermost  sat  the  pater 
coelestis,  surrounded  with  his  angels;  on  the  sec- 
ond appeared  the  holy  saints  and  glorified  men; 
and  the  last  and  lowest  was  occupied  by  mere  men, 
who  had  not  yet  passed  from  this  transitory  life 
to  the  regions  of  eternity.  On  one  side  of  this 
lowest  platform  was  the  resemblance  of  a  dark 
pitchy  cavern,  from  whence  issued  appearance  of 
fire  and  flames;  and  when  it  was  necessary,  the 
audience  were  treated  with  hideous  yellings  and 
noises,  as  imitative  of  the  bowlings  and  cries  of 
the  wretched  souls  tormented  by  the  relentless 
daemons.  From  this  yawning  cave  the  devils  them- 
selves constantly  ascended,  to  delight  and  to  in- 
struct the  spectators;  to  delight,  because  they  were 
usually  the  greatest  jesters  and  buffoons  that  then 
appeared;  and  to  instruct,  for  that  they  treated 
the  wretched  mortals  who  were  delivered  to  them 
with  the  utmost  cruelty,  warning  thereby  all  men 
carefully  to  avoid  the  falling  into  the  clutches  of 
such  hardened  and  remorseless  spirits. — But  in  the 
more  improved  state  of  the  theatre,  and  when 
regular  plays  were  introduced,  all  this  mummery 
was  abolished,  and  the  whole  cavern  and  devils,  to- 
gether with  the  highest  platform  before  mentioned, 
entirely  taken  away,  two  platforms  only  then  re- 
maining; and  these  continued  a  considerable  time 
in  use,  the  upper  stage  serving  them  for  chambers, 
or  any  elevated  situations."^    This  description  has 

3iii.  130. 


86       CORPUS   CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

been  thought  to  refer  to  the  Corpus  Christi  stage; 
but  since  Strutt  gives  no  authority  for  his  state- 
ment of  the  three  platforms,  and  since  such  a 
stage  would  not  conform  to  "  the  varied  subjects 
of  the  Corpus  Christi  plays  ",  Sharp  long  ago  con- 
jectured/ and  rightly,  too,  that  Strutt  must  have 
had  reference  to  a  fixed  stage  such  as  was  cus- 
tomarily used  for  the  French  Passion  plays.^ 

Thus,  one  may  readily  see,  we  are  dependent  for 
our  direct  information  about  the  Corpus  Christi 
stage  on  the  brief  statements  of  Rogers  and  Dug- 
dale.  The  modern  student  who  wants  specific  in- 
formation, however,  finds  these  descriptions  defect- 
ive. From  them  he  learns  only  that  the  pageant- 
wagon  was  movable,  that  it  was  placed  on  four,  or 
six,  wheels,  that  it  was  composed  of  two  stories, 
the  lower  of  which  was  used  for  dressing,  the 
upper  for  acting,  and  that  it  was  very  large  and 
high.  Further  inferences  can  not  be  drawn  from 
these  descriptions,  and  any  more  detailed  informa- 
tion must  be  obtained  from  indirect  sources. 

Other  Sources  of  Information.     Fortunately, 

*  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  24. 

^  Compare  the  colored  drawing  of  the  sta?e  used  for 
playing  the  Passion  at  Valenciennes  in  1547,  printed  in 
Petit  de  Julleville's  Histoire  de  la  Lqngue  et  de  la  Littira- 
ture  francaise,  ii.  416.  Similarly,  M.  Jusserand  has  repro- 
duced in  the  Furnivall  Miscellany,  pp.  192  and  194,  two 
miniatures  of  what  he  regards,  or  once  regarded,  as  Cor- 
pus Christi  stages  of  the  fourteenth  century,  but  Professor 
Manly  has  pointed  out  that  these  are  probably  no  more 
than  pictures  of  puppet-booths.    Cf.  Nation,  Ixxiv.  p.  465. 


THE   PAGEANTS  87 

from  the  extant  remnants  of  old  guild  accounts  and 
town  records  and  from  the  MSS  of  the  play-cycles 
that  have  come  down  to  modern  times,  materials 
can  be  collected  piecemeal  and  then  assembled,  so 
as  to  furnish  us  with  a  fairly  definite  idea  of  the 
construction  and  appearance  of  a  Corpus  Christi 
pageant. 

Norwich  Grocers'  Pageant.  One  source  full 
of  such  details  is  the  **  Inventory  of  ye  p'ticulars 
appartaynyng  to  ye  Company  of  ye  Grocers " 
found  among  some  extracts  made  in  the  eighteenth 
century  from  the  books  of  the  Norwich  grocers* 
company.  From  this  inventory  we  learn  that  their 
pageant-car  was  "  a  Howse  of  Waynskott,  paynted 
and  buylded  on  a  Carte,  with  fowre  whelys  ",  that 
it  had  a  "  square  topp  to  sett  over  ye  sayde  Howse  ", 
"  A  Gryffon,  gylte,  with  a  fane  to  sette  on  ye  sayde 
toppe  ",  "  A  bygger  Iron  fane  to  sett  on  ye  ende  of 
ye  Pageante",  "  iiij^^  iij  small  Fanes"  encircling 
the  top,  and  "  3  paynted  clothes  to  hang  abowte 
ye  Pageant ".  We  learn  also  that  the  stage  of  this 
pageant  contained  a  tree,  possibly  the  Tree  of 
Knowledge  of  Good  and  Evil,  to  which  flowers 
were  bound  with  "  collerd  thryd  "  and  which  was 
laden  with  "  orenges,  fyges,  allmondes,  dates, 
Reysens,  preumes,  &  aples  ".^ 

To  this  somewhat  indefinite,  generalized  descrip- 
tion of  the  Norwich  grocers'  pageant-car  it  may  be 

®  Waterhouse,  Non-Cycle  Mystery  Plays,  p.  xxxii  and  n.; 
Chambers,  Mediaeval  Stage,  ii.  388. 


88       CORPUS    CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

added  that  the  wagon  contained  double  stages,  both 
of  which  were  used  for  acting — the  upper  repre- 
senting heaven,  the  lower  paradise  and  the  earth, — 
and  that  the  paradise  platform  was  raised  a  step  or 
so  above  that  of  the  earth.'^  Other  stages,  we  find, 
customarily  had  one  or  more  of  these  individual 
raised  platforms,  called  sedes,  locus,  or  domus, 
which  were  separate,  elevated  stages  set  on  the 
regular  pageant  stage  and  used  to  represent  special 
towns,  houses,  or  temples.^  All  these  stages  were 
covered  with  rushes,  and,  if  we  may  judge  from 
the  Coventry  cappers'  pageant-car,^  ledges  were  put 
around  the  outside  of  the  main  stages  to  keep  the 
actors  from  accidentally  stepping  off. 

Hell-mouth.  Perhaps  at  this  point,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  stages  of  the  processional  pageant, 
the  famous  medieval  hell-mouth  ought  to  be  men- 
tioned. Hell,  to  the  medieval  type  of  mind,  was  a 
fearful  thing,  and  in  the  religious  plays  of  the 
Corpus  Christi  class  the  authors  are  fond  of  re- 
presenting it  as  often  and  in  as  awful  a  way  as 
possible,  perhaps  as  a  judicious  warning  of  the 
wrath  to  come. 

Mr.  V.  E.  Albright  in  a  neatly  drawn,  imaginary 
picture  of  the  Mary  Magdalene  stage  ^^  has  por- 
trayed the  hell  sedes  in  that  play  as  a  plain,  ordi- 
nary,  covered   platform  with  two   devils   on  the 

f  Cf.  Chapter  V. 

8  Cf.  Chapter  V. 

»  Sharp,  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  47. 

10  The  Shaksperian  Stage,  p.  16. 


THE   PAGEANTS  89 

boards  and  several  other  demons  peeping  out  from 
curtains  beneath  the  stage.  This  misconception  of 
the  scene  would  seem  to  have  had  as  its  basis  a 
misunderstanding  of  the  stage-direction  after  line 
357  of  the  play :  "  Here  xal  entyr  pe  prynse  of 
dylles  In  a  stage,  and  Helle  ondyr-neth  pat  stage  ".^^ 
Mr.  Albright  may  be  right  in  his  general  concep- 
tion of  the  staging  of  the  Mary  Magdalene  play — 
in  fact,  he  probably  is  correct, — ^but  all  the  v^^eight 
of  existing  evidence  is  against  the  probability  of 
such  a  hell-stage  as  he  has  pictured. 

Perhaps  we  can  best  visualize  the  hell  of  the 
Corpus  Christi  stage  by  considering  several  scenes 
in  which  it  was  presented — scenes,  too,  which  show 
how  the  dramatists  of  that  day  were  themselves 
lacking  in  a  definite  conception  of  hell-mouth.  For 
example,  the  writer  of  the  Chester  plays  makes  the 
devil  in  the  drapers'  Creation  and  Fall  "  Come  vp 
ovt  of  a  hole  "  to  tempt  Adam  and  Eve,  thus  sug- 
gesting the  conventional  dragon's-mouth  entrance; 
and  yet  in  the  cook's  Harrowing  of  Hell  later  in  the 
same  cycle  Christ  speaks  of  the  entrance  to  hell  as 
if  it  were  a  pair  of  gates.  In  the  latter  pageant, 
which  contains  one  of  the  scenes  where  the  method 
of  presenting  hell-mouth  is  most  difficult  to  ex- 
plain, the  play  is  prefaced  with  a  stage-direction 
that  primo  fiat  lux  in  inferno  materialis  aliqua 
subtilitate  machinata.  Because  of  this  light,  com- 
motion is  immediately  raised  among  the  inhabitants 

^^Furnivall,  Digby  Plays,  p.  67. 


90       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

on  the  inside,  Adam,  Isaiah,  David,  John  the  Bap- 
tist, and  the  rest,  all  of  whom  offer  various  sugges- 
tions as  to  v^hat  the  light  means.    Then  follows  :— 

Tunc  .  ,  .  dicat  Jesus,  Attolite  port  as,  prin- 
cipes,  vestras,  et  elevamini  porte  eternales,  et  in- 
troibit  rex  glorie, 

Jesus. 

Open  up  hell  gates  anon, 
You  princes  of  pyne  every e  eichone, 
That  Codes  sonne  maie  in  gone. 
And  the  kinge  of  blesse. 

And  if  we  should  wish  to  complicate  still  further 
the  method  of  representing  hell-mouth  on  the 
Corpus  Christi  stage,  we  might  add  the  speeches  of 
Christ  and  Belial  in  the  York  saddlers'  Harrowing 
of  Hell:— 

Jesus.    Attolite  portas  principes, 
'Oppen  vppe  ge  princes  of  paynes  sere, 
Et  eleuamini  eternales, 
Youre  yendles  jatis  pat  ^e  haue  here. 

Belliall.     We !  spere  oure  ^ates,  all  ill  mot 

pou  spede. 
And   sette   furthe   watches   on   pe   wall. — 

11.  121-40. 


THE    PAGEANTS  91 

These  speeches  and  directions,  if  taken  by  them- 
selves, would  imply  hells  with  battlemented  walls 
and  with  gates  for  entrances — in  fact,  little  more 
than  a  conventional  reproduction  of  the  picture  im- 
plied in  a  part  of  the  twenty-fourth  Psalm.  And 
yet  we  have  seen  that  the  author,  or  authors,  of  the 
Chester  plays  speaks  of  hell-mouth  earlier  in  the 
cycle  as  a  hole  from  which  the  devil  shall  enter 
paradise.  It  is  also  known  that  the  almost  uni- 
versal medieval  conception  of  hell-mouth,  for  some 
reason,  was  that  of  a  dragon's  head  with  wide-gap- 
ing jaws,  long,  sharp,  exaggerated  teeth,  and  gleam- 
ing eyes.  How,  then,  were  hell-mouth  and  the 
gates  and  battlements  of  hell  represented  in  the 
York  and  Chester  plays? 

The  answer  to  this  somewhat  vexing  problem  is 
to  be  found  in  a  hypothetical  composite  of  two  pic- 
tures printed  by  Sharp  in  his  famous  Disserta- 
tion.'^^ In  one  of  these  the  artist,  if  we  may  call 
him  such,  has  represented  hell-mouth  as  a  great 
dragon's  gaping  jaws,  between  which  is  set  a  door, 
or  gate,  which  an  angel  is  unlocking.  And  inside 
are  discernible  various  men,  women,  devils,  priests, 
kings,  and  other  unfortunates. 

A  mere  glance  at  this  reprint  shows  that  such 
a  hell-mouth  as  the  one  depicted  here  might  well 

12  Plates  5  and  6,  opposite  p.  62.  One  of  these  is  a  copy 
of  an  eleventh  century  drawing  in  the  Cotton  library  of 
the  British  Museum,  the  other  an  engraving  from  a  fresco 
painting  over  the  arch  v^rhich  separates  the  nave  and  chan- 
cel in  the  Chapel  of  the  Holy  Cross  at  Stratford-on-Avon. 


92       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

have  served  as  the  hell-gates  of  the  Chester  plays, 
and,  had  the  entire  picture  with  all  its  surrounding 
walls  been  given  us,  it  might  possibly  have  fur- 
nished the  battlements  demanded  by  the  York  Har- 
rowing of  Hell.  The  only  thing  lacking  is  the  wall 
about  the  dragon's  mouth,  which  is  just  the  feature 
given  in  the  other  picture.  In  this  we  have  a  view 
chiefly  of  the  exterior  of  hell  (though  we  are  al- 
lowed to  get  a  glimpse  through  one  of  the  walls 
into  the  depths  of  the  place).  Hell  as  represented 
here  is  a  walled  and  battlemented  furnace  filled 
with  flame  and  entered  through  the  jaws  of  a  big- 
eyed,  yawning  dragon.  On  the  walls  are  two 
demons  blowing  horns,  one  sitting,  the  other  lean- 
ing over,  and  inside  the  place  of  torment  are  seen 
Envy,  Gluttony,  and  one  other,  all  of  whom  a 
devil  is  chastising  with  a  rope  scourge.  Wrath 
and  three  others  are  just  v\^alking  into  the  jaws  of 
hell ;  a  demon  off  to  the  rif/ht  is  bringing  in  Pride 
on  his  shoulders;  one  to  the  left,  with  a  pitchfork 
in  his  hand,  is  dragging  a  man  by  the  left  leg; 
while  immediately  in  front  another  devil  is  drag- 
ging by  a  chain  Avarice  and  his  companions,  who 
are  being  driven  from  behind  by  a  bigger  devil 
with  an  enormous  club.  In  the  background  is  still 
another  horned,  long-tailed,  and  crooked-snouted 
demon  carrying  a  pitch-fork.^* 

^3  Beneath  this  picture  as  given  by  Sharp  is  another 
representing  an  interior  view  of  hell.  This,  however, 
shows  nothing  of  the  exterior  nor  of  the  mode  of  entrance 
and  is  of  no  service  here. 


THE   PAGEANTS  93 

From  these  two  engravings  one  may  understand 
how  the  York  and  Chester  plays  might  easily  have 
been  staged  with  walls  and  gates  and  the  conven- 
tional dragon's  head.  The  important  thing  to  note, 
however,  is  that  the  hell-head  was  probably  there. 
It  is  to  be  found  in  both  of  the  pictures;  it  is 
referred  to  in  the  earlier  Chester  scene;  and  we 
know  that  it  was  the  accepted  symbol  of  a  hell- 
scene.  Sharp  prints  two  other  hell-pictures,  both 
of  which  show  the  customary  gaping  dragon's  head, 
and  he  takes  it  as  the  regularly  recognized  symbol 
of  hell  on  the  stage. 

The  representation  of  walls  along  with  the 
dragon's  head  was  of  course  common  in  the  pic- 
tures of  this  time,  but  it  is  not  therefore  neces- 
sarily to  be  argued  that  the  gates  were  always,  or 
indeed  often,  set  between  the  jaws.  In  fact  the 
illustration  given  by  Sharp  is  the  only  one  the  pres- 
ent writer  has  found  which  puts  the  gates  into  the 
conventional,  medieval  hell-mouth.  This  picture 
seems  to  represent  an  attempt  to  reconcile  the  com- 
mon conception  of  hell-mouth  with  the  passage  in 
Psalm  xxiv.  But  numerous  other  examples  of  the 
representation  of  hell-mouth  as  a  dragon's  head 
are  at  hand.  In  the  beautiful  colored  drawing  of 
the  stage  used  for  playing  the  Passion  at  Valen- 
ciennes in  1547  hell-mouth  was  a  dragon's  head 
with  red,  cavernous  jaws  and  green  eyes.^*  The 
miserere  in  Ludlow  church,  England,  represents  a 

1'*  Cf.  Petit  de  Julleville,  Histoire  de  la  Langue  et  de  la 
Litterature  francaise,  ii.  416. 


94       CORPUS    CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

demon  carrying  off  a  fraudulent  ale-wife  with  her 
gay  head-dress  and  false  measure  toward  hell- 
mouth,  which  is  a  dragon's  gaping,  long-toothed 
jaws.^^  At  Lincoln  among  the  list  of  appurten- 
ances and  properties  for  the  play  of  the  "  storye  of 
Tobias  in  the  Old  Testament"  in  1564  there  is  re- 
corded "  First,  hell  mouth,  with  a  neither  chap  ",^® 
as  if  the  mouth  were  made  to  open  and  shut.  In 
the  Coventry  drapers'  accounts  for  1537,  1538, 
1542,  1554,  1556,  1565,  and  1567  items  are  found 
for  payntyng  &  makyng  newe  hell  hede  ",  *'  for 
/mendyng  of  hell  hede  ",  "  for  kepynge  hell  hede  ", 
'and  "  for  makyng  hell  mowth  and  cloth  for  hyt "." 
In  1557  the  Coventry  drapers  paid  4d.  "  for  kepyng 
of  fyer  at  hell  mothe  ".^®  On  one  occasion  at 
Coventry  hell  itself  caught  fire  and  almost  burnt 
up.^^  And  in  Sackville's  Induction  to  the  Mirrour 
for  Magistrates  we  find  a  description  of  hell  so 
closely  resembling  the  hell-mouth  of  the  stage  that 
one  might  almost  say  the  author  of  the  poem  was 
describing  some  Corpus  Christi  play  he  had  seen: 

An  hideous  hole,  all  vaste,  withouten  shape, 
Of  en  dies  depth,  orewhelmde  with  ragged  stone, 
With  ougly  mouth,  and  griesly  iawes  doth  gape, 
And  to  our  sight  confounds  it  selfe  in  one.^o 

15  Booklover's  Shakespeare's  Taming  of  the  Shrew,  p. 
126;  Morris,  Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and  Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  314  n. 

16  Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  Lincoln  MSS,  p.  58. 

17  Sharp,  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  61. 

18  Ibid.,  p.  73. 

1^  Morris,   Chester  during   the  Plantagenet  and   Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  315. 
20  Haslewood,  Mirror  for  Magistrates,  ii.  1.  31 7- 


THE   PAGEANTS  95 

Size  of  the  Pageant-Car.  Of  the  actual  size  of 
the  Corpus  Christi  pageant-cars,  and  hence  of  the 
stages,  very  Httle  is  known.  Dugdale  describes  the 
wagons  as  large  and  high;  and  the  fact  that  they 
were  sometimes  placed  on  six  wheels  would  in- 
dicate pageants  of  considerable  size.  The  fact 
that  they  were  sometimes  placed  on  four  wheels 
would  also  indicate  that  they  were  not  all  of  the 
same  size.  At  Coventry  in  1435  there  is  a  record 
that  **  a  parcel  of  land  in  Mill  Lane,  adjoining  the 

*  Tailour  paiont '  [house]  being  303^  feet  wide  and 
703^  long,  was  granted  and  let  for  80  years  to  John 
Hampton  and  7  others,  paying  3s.  8d.  rent,  and 
covenanting  to  erect  thereupon  during  that  term 

*  unam  domum  vocatum  a  Paiont  hows ',  and  to 
keep  the  same  in  good  repair  during  the  said 
term  ".^^  From  this  entry  some  vague  idea  of  the 
size  of  one  of  these  wagons  might  be  gained,  were 
it  not  for  the  fact  that,  as  we  shall  see  later,  more 
than  one  pageant  was  often  stored  in  the  same 
house.  On  such  a  plot  of  ground,  at  any  rate,  a 
pageant-house  might  be  built  big  enough  to  con- 
tain a  very  large  wagon. 

Gaudy  Decorations.  As  may  readily  be  sur- 
mised from  the  extravagant  tastes  of  the  pageant- 
loving  medievalists,  as  well  as  from  the  description 
of  the  Norwich  grocers'  pageant  given  above,  all 
the  play-wagons  were  gaily  and  profusely,  even 
gaudily,  ornamented.     As  an  example  may  be  cited 

21  Weavers'  Pageant  of  the  Presentation  in  the  Temple, 
p.  25. 


96       CORPUS    CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

the  Chester  mercers,  whose  pageant-wagon  pre- 
senting Christ  in  the  manger  ought  to  have  been  a 
simple  one;  yet  theirs  was  most  gorgeously  dec- 
orated : — 

The  mercers  worshipfull  of  degre 
The  presentation  that  have  yee 

Of  caryage  I  have  no  doubt 

Both  within  and  without 

It  shall  be  deckyd  yt  all  the  Rowte 

Full  gladly  on  it  shall  be  to  loke. 

With  sundry  cullors  it  shall  glime 

Of  velvit  satten  and  damaske  fine 

Taffyta  sersnett  of  poppyngee  grene.22 

The  Chester  wrights,  in  like  manner,  furnished  a 
"  well  decked  carriage ",  and  the  "  Drawers  of 
Dee "  had  their  ship  painted  round  with  beasts 
and  fowls  of  all  kinds  to  represent,  or  symbolize, 
the  "  two  of  a  kind  "  taken  into  the  ark.  In  time 
these  decorations  came  to  be  required,  so  that  by 
1520  we  find  the  town  council  of  Beverley  fining 
the  alderman  of  the  drapers  "  because  his  pageant 
was  not  covered  with  decent  dresses  ".^^  The 
stage  floors  were  always  covered  with  rushes,  and 
and  somewhere  on  the  wagon  was  hung  a  banner 
bearing  the  arms  of  the  city.  At  York  the  regula- 
tion about  the  banners  was  so  strict  that  the  com- 
panies were  forbidden  to  place  aliqua  signa,  arma, 

22  Morris,   Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and  Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  307. 

23  Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  Beverley  MSS,  p.  172. 


THE   PAGEANTS  97 

vel  insignia  super  paginam  predictam  nisi  tantum 
arma  cujus  hon.  civitatis.^*  These  decorations 
seem  usually  to  have  been  provided  under  the  gen- 
eral supervision  of  the  pageant-master,  except  at 
Coventry,  where  there  was  a  decorator,  or 
"  dresser ",  who  was  regularly  paid  "  for  swep- 
yng  the  pagent  &  dressyng  ".^^ 

Cost  of  a  Pageant.  The  cost  of  a  pageant-car 
and  the  general  expenses  for  the  production  of  a 
play  have  been  found  at  various  times  in  the  ac- 
count books  of  the  guilds.  7^.  yd.  was  paid  by  the 
Coventry  drapers  in  1520  for  the  timber  to  make 
their  pageant  for  the  Doomsday  play,  and  the  total 
cost  of  a  new  ship  for  the  Hull  Noah's  Ark  play  ^^ 
was  i5  Ss.  4d.  in  1421  and  £5  8^.  in  1494.  The 
Chester  smiths,  however,  paid  something  less  than 
half  this  amount  in  1561  for  their  carriage  for  the 
scene  of  the  Purification  of  Mary.  The  full  entry 
is  as  follows : 

1561.  Tymber  (for  the  Carriage),  8/4;  to  carter  and 
men  to  get  it  out,  7d.  ob.;  Wed  to  make  welles,  3/4; 
Cartwright  making  the  wheles,  7/4;  Bords  and  other 
tymber,  5/-;  The  wright  making  the  Carriage  and  for 
berrage  [drink-money]  8/5,  nayls  6d.;  Wrightes  setting 
the  wheles,  viiid. ;  A  pound  of  grey  sope  for  the  wheles, 
iiid.;  Nayles  to  dresse  the  Carriage,  iiid.  ob.;  Makyng  a 
fayre   paynting   and    dressynge    the   pillers    gere   and    a 

2*  Smith,  York  Plays,  p.  xxv  n. 

25  Sharp,  Coventry  Mysteries,  pp.  21  and  48. 

28  This  was  probably  not  a  regular  Corpus  Christi  play, 
but  from  the  entry  one  may  gather  something  of  the  cost 
of  a  pageant-wagon. 


98       CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

crowne  for  Mary;  3  Curten  cowerds  [cords],  iiid.;  pynnes, 
iiid.27 

Cost  of  the  Production  of  a  Play.  But  the 
expense  of  the  pageant-car  was  not  annual,  as  was 
that  of  the  production  of  the  play.  A  pageant- 
wagon  might  with  judicious  repairs  be  made  to 
last  indefinitely,  but  the  cost  of  a  play  was  an 
annual  burden,  which,  however,  varied  with  the 
different  guilds  and  in  different  years.  The  cause 
of  this  variation  is  not  hard  to  find  when  we  come 
to  examine  the  plays  and  the  circumstances  under 
which  they  were  produced.  For  example,  a  simple 
scene  like  the  York  plasterers'  Creation  to  the 
Fifth  Day  with  only  one  character  and  one  short 
scene,  or  the  wine-drawers'  Appearance  to  Mary 
Magdalene  with  two  characters,  could  not  be  ex- 
pected, other  things  being  equal,  to  cost  nearly  as 
much  as,  for  example,  the  mercers'  Doomsday 
with  thirteen  characters,  or  the  goldsmiths'  Adora- 
tion with  ten  persons  and  two  scenes.  There  were 
also  natural  economic  changes  in  the  prices  of 
materials;  and  some  years,  of  course,  more  prop- 
erties were  to  be  bought  and  more  repairs  to  be 
made  on  the  carriages.  Thus  the  charges  for  per- 
forming the  Coventry  drapers'  play,  Sharp  tells 
us,^®  varied  from  21s.  to  £4  Ss.  6d.;  and  from  the 
same  source  we  learn  that  the  annual  costs  of  the 
cappers'  pageant  was  about  35^.  until  1550,  and  be- 

27  Morris,   Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and  Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  305  n. 

28  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  68. 


THE   PAGEANTS  99 

tween  45^.  and  50J.  afterwards.  In  1490  the  total 
cost  of  the  smiths'  pageant  was  £2  14^.  9j/^f/.-^  In 
I534»  the  first  time  the  cappers  produced  their 
recently  acquired  play,  31J.  5J^c/.  was  spent  in 
*  Reparacions  made  of  the  Pageant  &  players  ger* 
and  30J.  4d.  for  rehearsals  and  the  regular  ex- 
penses on  Corpus  Christi  day.^°  In  1523  the  weav- 
ers spent  27jr..8j^c?.  on  their  play^and^o^.  SYzd.  in 
1524.^^  And  as  an  example  of  lh"e~  usuaTchiirges 
ttTeTollowing*  from  the  weavers'  records  for  1565 
may  be  examined : 

In  primis  for  ij  rehersys ijs 

Item  payd  for  the  dryving  of  the  pagente     .     .     .     .     vd 

Item  paid  to  Symeon iijs  iiijd 

Item  paid  to  Josephe ijs  iiijd/ 

Item  paid  to  Jesus xx( 

Item  paid  to  Mary xx< 

Item  paid  to  Anne xx( 

Item  paid  to  Symeon's  clarke xxc 

Item  paid  to  the  ij  angells viijd^ 

Item  paid  to  the  chylde iiijd 

Item  paid  for  russhes,  packthryd  &  nayls  .  .  .  iiijd 
Item  paid  to  James  Hewete  for  his  rygoles     .     .     .     xxd 

Item  paid  for  syngyng xvjd^ 

Item  paid  for  gloves ijs  ii< 

Item  paid  for  meate  in  the  bocherye     .     .      .      .      xs  ix( 

Item  paid  for  bread  &  ale vijs  viijdj 

Summe  xliiijs  iijd.-^^ 

29  Sharp,  pp.  15-17.  But  note  that  the  sum  as  given  in 
Sharp  is  not  correctly  added.  Chambers,  Med.  Stage,  ii. 
116,  mcorrectly  puts  the  sum  at  £3  Js.  sVid. 

80  Ihid.,  p.  45- 

31  Presentation  in  the  Temple,  p.  19. 

S2  Ibid.,  p.  24. 


V 


100     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

Pageant-Houses.  Another  thing  that  added 
to  the  annual  expenses  of  the  play-producing  com- 
panies was  the  yearly  charge  for  the  storage  of  the 
pageant- wagons.  Many  of  the  guilds,  of  course, 
owned  their  own  houses,  known  as  pageant-houses, 
where  they  stored  their  pageant-cars.  Others, 
however,  rented  space  for  their  pageants.  At 
York  in  1503,  for  instance,  the  cooks  were  granted 
"  sufficient  and  convenient  roome  for  theyr  pag- 
iaunt  within  the  pagiaunt  house  of  the  baxters  ",^* 
and  at  Lincoln  all  the  wagons  were  stored  in  "  the 
late  school-house  "  and  a  charge  made  "  for  ware- 
housing of  4d.  for  every  pageant,  *  and  Noy  schippe 

Often,  however,  each  guild,  or  each  union  of  two 
or  more  guilds,  had  its  own  pageant-house,  which 
was  built  and  maintained  at  the  expense  of  the 
company.  Our  fullest  accounts  of  a  pageant-house 
are  to  be  had  from  the  records  of  the  Coventry 
weavers,  who  m  1587  tore  down  their  old  house 
and  built  a  new  one  on  its  site.  The  following 
records  of  "  paymentes  for  bulding  of  the  paygente 
house  in  the  Myl  lane  "  will  give  us  some  idea  of 
what  it  was: 

Item  in  prymis,  payd  at  taklnge  doune  of  the 
house  and  the  tilles,  for  hieryng  of  a  rope, 
and  caryinge  the  leade  to  the  store  house,  & 
for  drynk  to  the  worke  men  that  same  day    .    ijs  xd 

68  Davies,  York  Records,  p.  240  n. 
8*  Leach  in  Furnivall  Miscellany,  p.  224.    Mr.  Leach  puts 
this  date  at  "Nov.  12,  31  Henry  VII." C  I) 


THE   PAGEANTS  101 

Item  payd  to  carpteners  for  ther  wages  .  iijli  iiijs  iiijd 
Item  payd  to  the  masones  for  ther  wages  .  viijs  iiijd 
Item  payd  to  the  tilers  for  tiling  and  daubing  xvijs  viijd 
Item  payd  for  stone  and  for  carying  of  stone     .     .     xijs 

Item  payd  for  sand  and  claye vs  ijd 

Item  payd  for  lyme  and  for  heare,  to  make  mortar 

ixs  vlijd 

Tiles  9s.  6d.,  timber  30  [25] s.  8d.,  spars  and 
stoods  IIS.  8d. 
Item  payd  for  a  hundred  &  halfe  of  bryckes    .    ijs  ijd 
Item  payd  at  the  rearyng  of  the  house  and  on  the 

nyght   befor xs   vjd 

Summe  is  xjli  xvijs  xd.^^ 

To  these  1587-^ntries  may  be  added  an  earlier  one, 
1 53 1,  that  of  a  payment  "  for  mendyng  of  pe  [old] 
pagent  howse  wyndo  ". 

From  these  accounts  we  learn  that  the  earlier 
house  had  a  window,  that  the  later  one  had  a  tile 
roof  and  probably  a  stone  foundation,  that  it  was 
possibly  sealed  inside,  and  that  the  total  cost  was 
in  lys.  lod.  But  since  Sharp  tells  us  (without 
giving  his  authority,  however)  that  the  new  one 
was  also  "  suitable  for  a  dwelling ",  it  is  not  pos- 
sible to  state  just  what  or  how  many  of  these  char- 
acteristics were  to  be  found  in  a  regular  pageant- 
house. 

Joint  Use  of  the  Pageants.  The  carriage- 
houses,  as  stated  above,  were  often  the  joint  prop- 
erty of  two  or  more  guilds,  as  were  the  pageants 
stored  in  them.    This  joint  ownership,  of  course, 

«5  Weavers'  Pageant  of  the  Presentation  in  the  Temple, 
p.  26. 


102      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

was  for  the  purpose  of  lessening  expenses,  and  in 
such  cases  the  same  wagon  was  used  for  more  than 
one  play  in  the  same  festival.  For  example,  at 
Chester  in  1532  we  find  the  vintners  and  dyers,  who 
played  the  Adoration  of  the  Magi,  the  next  to  the 
last  play  on  Monday,  agreeing  with  the  goldsmiths 
and  masons,  who  produced  the  Slaughter  of  the 
Innocents,  the  first  one  on  Tuesday,  for  both  to  use 
the  same  pageant-car,  the  vintners  and  dyers  to  pay 
a  stated  amount  toward  the  cost  of  the  wagon  and 
a  third  of  the  expenses  for  repairs  and  carriage- 
house  rent. 

Preliminary  Preparations.  It  was  from  these 
pageant-houses  that  the  wagons  at  the  beginning 
of  the  festival  season  were  "  had  f urthe  "  for  "  re- 
parellynge ",  "  for  payntyng  of  the  vane ",  for 
"  making  the  wheles ",  for  "  dressynge  with 
resshes  ",  for  lubrication  with  "  grey  sope  "-,  and  for 
the  general  preliminary  preparations,  all  of  which 
must  be  completed  by  the  evening  before  the  fes- 
tival. And  in  order  to  get  an  early  start  the  next 
morning  the  carriages  were  removed  from  their 
pageant-houses  the  evening  before,  and  watchmen, 
usually  the  journeymen  of  the  guilds,  were  sta- 
tioned and  paid  to  protect  them  from  vandals  dur- 
ing the  night. 

"Horsing"  the  Pageants.  The  cars  were 
drawn  sometimes  by  men,  sometimes  by  horses. 
The  Norwich  grocers'  pageant  in  1565  was  drawn 
by   six   horses   decorated   with  "  Horsse   Clothes, 


THE   PAGEANTS  103 

stayned,  w*  knopps  &  tassels  ".^^  The  Coventry  \  jjj 
weavers.paid  their  journeyrnen  3^.  2d.  in  1555  "  for  /^ 
dryving  the  pagent ",  and  Chambers' states  that  the 
cappers  expected  their  journeymen  to  do  the  "  hors- 
ing "  of  their  pageant,  a  service  which  they  do  not 
always  seems  to  have  rendered,  since  Sharp  quotes 
the  company  as  paying  i6d.  one  year  "  for  four 
whit  harnesse  ".^^  In  1584  the  York  bakers  paid 
2s.  "to  Yjd.  laborers  for  puttinge  the  padgion"; 
the  Chester  smiths  had  theirs  drawn  by  ten  in  1567 
and  by  nine  in  1575 ;  the  Coventry  drapers  had  ten 
in  1 56 1 ;  and  the  cappers  in  1490,  twelve. 

Promptness.  The  wagons  were  drawn  in  a 
regular  stated  order  and  absolute  promptness  was 
demanded.  At  York  a  schedule  of  the  pageants  \y\ 
had  to  be  written  by  the  town-clerk  and  officially 
delivered  to  the  crafts  yearly  in  the  first  or  second 
week  of  Lent  so  that  no  excusable  mistake  might 
be  made.  And,  in  addition,  the  bailiffs  and  the 
councilmen  assumed  the  government  and  general 
oversight  over  the  pageants  on  play-day  so  that 
word  might  be  "broughte  how  euery  place  was 
neere  done  "  and  no  time  be  given  "  to  tarye,  till  y® 
last  was  played  ".  In  1423  "  the  Twelve  Keepers  " 
of  Beverley  were  given  their  expenses  for  work 
"  on  Corpus  Christi  day  governing  all  the  pageants 
passing  through  the  whole  town  ",  and  in  1459  one 
Thomas  Law,  alderman  of  butchers  in  the  same 

3*  Chambers,  Mediaeval  Stage,  ii.  388. 
37  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  49. 


104      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

town,  was  fined  for  coming  late  to  the  station  at 
the  North  Gates. 

Number  of  the  Plays.  The  number  of 
pageants  varied,  of  course,  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  plays,  from  less  than  a  half-dozen  scenes 
at  Worcester  to  as  many  as  fifty-seven  at  York. 
This  variation  in  the  number  of  the  cars  and  the 
pageant  scenes  furnishes  a  striking  testimony  to 
the  elasticity  of  the  plays,  which  could  be  divided 
from  or  merged  into  each  other  according  to  the 
changing  conditions  of  social  life  and  the  varying 
wealth  and  prosperity  of  the  guilds  enjoying  the 
feast.  At  Worcester  in  1467  the  town-council 
ordained  "  that  v.  pageunts  be  hadd  amonge  the 
craftes "  ^^  that  year,  an  ordinance  which  would 
suggest  that  the  number  of  scenes  varied  from  year 
to  year.  At  Beverley  there  were  thirty-eight  in 
1390  against  thirty-six  in  1520;  thirty-two  are  ex- 
tant from  Wakefield,  and  there  probably  were 
others;  and  Coventry  probably  had  forty-five,  or 
nine,  according  as  the  count  is  made  ^*  (none  of 
which,  it  is  rather  remarkable,  presented  any  scenes 
from  the  Old  Testament). 

Time  Required.  The  length  of  time  required 
for  the  plays  varied  from  one  day,  the  time  at  most 
of  the  towns,  to  three  days  at  Chester.  At  York 
the  whole  cycle  of  from  forty-eight  to  fifty-seven 
scenes  was  gone  through  within  one  day,  though,  in 
order  to  accomplish  this,  the  actors  had  to  be  ready 

«8  Smith,  English  Gilds,  p.  372. 

»•  Craig,  Two  Coventry  Corpus  Christi  Plays,  p.  xv. 


THE   PAGEANTS  105 

for  beginning  "  at  the  mydhowre  betwix  iiij*^  and 
v*^  of  the  cloke  in  the  mornynge  ".  At  Coventry^ 
too,  the  whole  series  was  meant  for  completion  in, 
one  day ;  but  this  was  not  always  accomplished,  for 
in  1457  we  learn  that  on  "  Corporis  Christi  yeven 
at  nyght  .  .  .  came  the  quene  [Margaret]  from 
Kelyngworth  to  Coventre  .  .  .=  to  se  the  play  there 
on  the  morowe ;  and  she  sygh  then  alle  the  Pagentes 
pleyde  save  Domes-day,  which  myght  not  be  pleyde 
for  lak  of  day  "/^  In  such  cases  it  appears  tha; 
the  remaining  scenes  were  given  the  following 
day;  for  in  1544  among  the  entries  of  the  Coventry 
cappers,  whose  scene  was  third  from  the  last,  we 
find  Sd.  "  payd  for  drynk  in  pe  pageant  for  pe 
plears  for  bothe  days  ",  from  which  one  might  sur- 
mise that  the  whole  series  was  not  completed  the 
first  day,  as  the  program  called  for,  and  that  the 
last  three  acts  were  left  for  the  second.  At  other 
places,  however,  the  pageants  were  purposely  dis- 
tributed over  several  days;  as,  for  example,  at 
Chester,  where  they  "  were  played  vpon  monday, 
tuseday,  and  wenseday  in  witson  weeke  ". 

ffor  three  dayes  together,  begynninge  one  mondaye, 
see  these  pagentes  played  to  the  beste  of  theire  skill, 
wher  to  supply  all  wantes,  shalbe  noe  wantes  of  good  will.^i 

Summary.  In  conclusion,  then,  it  may  be 
said  of  the  pageant-cars  on  which  the  Corpus 
Christi  plays  were  presented  that  they  were  big, 
ponderous  wagons  employing  one  or  two  stages. 

*o  Harris,  Coventry  Leet  Book,  p.  300. 
*i  Deimling,  Chester  Plays,  i.  p.  3. 


106      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

When  the  plays  were  simple  in  scene,  only  one 
stage  was  used.  In  such  cases  a  lower  room,  pro- 
tected by  curtains,  was  sometimes  fitted  up  under 
the  stage  for  a  dressing-room.  When  the  plays  de- 
manded the  representation  of  heaven  and  earth,  or 
of  heaven  and  paradise,  double  stages,  one  above 
the  other,  were  used,  the  upper  representing 
heaven,  the  lower  earth  or  paradise.  On  the 
stages  were  raised  platforms,  which  were  made  to 
represent  different  towns  and  places.  Hell  was  a 
favorite  subject  in  the  religious  drama  and  was 
represented  by  a  dragon's  head  with  gaping  mouth 
and  long  teeth. 

For  the  representation  of  the  plays  the  pageant- 
cars  were  gaudily  decorated.  These  wagons  were 
a  great  expense  upon  the  craftsmen,  as  was  the  cost 
of  the  production  of  their  plays.  An  additional 
expense  was  the  annual  storage  charge  for  the 
wagons,  which  were  stored  in  regular  pageant- 
houses.  Often  two  companies  owned  a  pageant- 
house  or  a  pageant- wagon  jointly.  In  such  cases 
the  same  car  was  frequently  used  for  the  repre- 
sentation of  two  or  more  plays  in  the  same  cycle. 
The  number  of  these  scenes  in  a  cycle,  and  hence 
the  number  of  pageant-wagons  required,  varied 
greatly,  from  five  scenes  at  Worcester  to  fifty- 
seven  at  York.  And,  finally,  the  time  required  for 
the  representation  of  these  pageants  varied  from 
one  day  at  most  of  the  towns  to  as  many  as  three 
at  Chester. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING 

Introductory.  In  the  preceding  chapters  of 
this  volume  our  study  has  been  devoted  largely  to 
the  purely  mechanical  features  of  the  pageants, 
though  some  attention  was  given  in  chapter  III  to 
the  Corpus  Christi  procession  as  a  determining 
factor  in  grouping  the  Old  and  New  Testament 
plays  into  cycles.  It  now  remains  for  us  to  con- 
sider the  relations  between  these  mechanical  fea- 
tures and  the  plays  themselves,  together  with  some 
of  the  principles  of  staging  that  resulted  from 
the  conditions  under  which  the  cycles  developed 
and  continued  to  be  produced. 

Incongruities  in  the  Plays.  The  conditions 
under  which  the  plays  developed  resulted  in  the 
presence  in  the  complete  cycles  of  various  contra- 
dictions and  inconsistencies.  Some  of  these  are 
very  striking,  the  most  notable,  perhaps,  being  the 
large  number  of  incongruities  in  the  plays,  incon- 
gruities which  any  dramatist  ought  to  have  been 
able  to  detect  and  remove.     These  incongruous  ele- 

107 


108     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

ments  comprise  inconsistencies  within  single 
scenes;  inconsistencies  and  contradictions  between 
scenes  in  more  or  less  close  proximity  to  each 
other ;  great  inequality  in  the  treatment,  tone,  style, 
and  metre  of  the  different  plays  of  the  same  cycle ; 
the  narration  of  incidents  in  one  play  which  have 
just  been  acted  a  few  scenes  back;  and  various 
other  irregularities. 

Some  of  these  incongruities  may  well  have 
existed  in  the  cycles  as  originally  composed;  for  it 
is  very  probable  that  the  original  cycles  were  pro- 
duced by  collaboration.  And  unless  such  col- 
laboration was  planned  and  executed  with  the  ut- 
most care,  many  such  incongruities  would  almost 
inevitably  occur.  But  we  know  both  from  the 
records  and  from  the  kinds  of  inequalities  which 
we  find  in  the  plays,  that  the  scenes  were  being  con- 
tinually revised.  And  hence  we  are  able  to  find 
what  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  principal 
causes  of  the  inconsistencies;  for  in  the  revisions 
little  or  no  care  seems  to  have  been  taken  to  elim- 
inate or  to  prevent  contradictions  and  irregular- 
ities. 

Development  of  New  Scenes.  One  of  the  chief 
causes  of  these  revisions  and  of  the  consequent 
incongruities  was  the  normal  expansion  of  the 
cycles,  which  came  as  a  result  of  the  natural 
increase  in  the  number  of  play-producing  com- 
panies. Whenever  a  new  scene  was  needed,  it 
was  obtained  either  by  dividing  an  original  play, 


CORPUS   CHRISTI    STAGING         109 

by  the  development  into  a  scene  of  what  had 
formerly  been  an  incident  only,  or  by  the  creation 
of  a  new  play  from  biblical,  apochryphal,  or 
legendary  sources.  Thus  we  find  the  York  Com- 
ing of  the  Three  Kings  a  divisible  play,  one  which 
might  be  given  as  two  separate  scenes  when  the 
masons  and  goldsmiths  were  both  playing,  or  as  a 
single  scene  when  the  former  were  not  able  to 
support  a  pageant.  Likewise  the  Appearance  of 
Our  Lady  to  Thomas  in  the  same  cycle  seems  to 
be  one  of  those  that  was  developed  from  what  was 
earlier  only  an  incident  in  an  apochryphal  biblical 
story.  And  in  the  Coventry  cycle,  though  the  play- 
book  has  not  come  down  to  us,  "  the  matter  of  the 
Castell  of  Emaus  "  seems  to  have  been  an  incident 
added  to  the  cappers'  play  in  1540.^ 

Merging  of  Old  Scenes.    The  cycles  were  not 
always  growing,  however,  and  the  number  of  play-  / 
producing  guilds  was  not  always  on  the  increase.  [;' 
On  the  contrary,  the  make-up  of  the  list  of  com-  • 
panics  was  continually  changing,  one,  or  sometimes 
more,  dropping  out  of  the  lists  and  making  it  nec- 
essary to  telescope  two  or  more  scenes  into  onei  li 
Illustrations  of  the  results  of  this  process  are  to  be   '■ 
found  in  the  twentieth  play  of  the  Wakefield  cycle, 
which  represents  the  conspiracy,  the  Last  Supper^i\j 

1  Craig,  Two  Coventry  Corpus  Christi  Plays,  p.  94. 
Since  this  scene  was  one  of  the  features  of  the  early- 
liturgical  drama,  however,  it  may  be  possible  that  the 
record  implies  only  the  composition  of  a  new  version  of 
the  old  scene. 


110     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

and  the  arrest  of  Christ;  and  in  the  sixth  of  the 
Chester  series,  presenting  the  annunciation,  the 
visit  of  Mary  to  Elizabeth,  and  the  nativity.  The 
latter  is  an  excellent  example  of  an  unskilful  merg- 
ing of  at  least  two,  or  possibly  three,  plays. 

All  this  "  telescoping  "  and  dividing  of  the  plays 
and  the  expansion  of  minor  incidents  into  new 
scenes,  was  the  cause  of  numerous  incongruities, 
inequalities,  and  inconsistencies  in  the  stage  repre- 
sentation of  the  plays,  all  of  which  will  be  taken  up 
for  discussion  in  their  proper  place  in  the  succeed- 
ing chapters.  In  the  same  place,  too,  will  be  con- 
sidered some  of  the  other  similar  characteristics  of 
the  plays  which  were  the  result,  not  of  their 
method  of  development,  but  of  the  circumstances 
under  which  they  were  produced.  For  the  pres- 
ent, it  is  sufficient  merely  to  call  attention  to  these 
traits  and  to  point  out  that  they  were  a  direct  re- 
sult of  the  open-air  stages  on  which  it  was  neces- 
sary to  present  the  plays.  Such  are  the  use  of 
sedes  in  the  scenes,  the  reliance  of  the  dramatists 
on  the  imagination  of  the  hearers,  the  lack  of  per- 
spective in  staging,  the  symbolic  treatment  of 
space,  time,  and  numbers,  etc. 

Influence  of  the  Liturgical  Sources.  Mean- 
while, at  the  same  time  that  we  are  considering  the 
various  influences  exercised  upon  the  Corpus 
Christi  stage,  it  may  be  well  to  examine  one  of  the 
pre-cyclic  influences,  the  liturgical  drama ;  although 
the  present  writer  is  much  opposed  to  the  modern 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING       111 

tendency  toward  tracing  every  form,  device,  and 
method  of  literature  back  to  some  preceding  form, 
device,  or  method — foreign  preferred,  native  ac- 
cepted. In  other  words — to  be  more  specific,  and 
to  draw  an  illustration  from  the  subject  under  con- 
sideration,— it  seems  that  criticism  is  entirely  and 
undoubtedly  within  the  limits  of  safety  in  tracing 
the  religious  drama  and  many  of  its  customs  back 
to  the  early  church ;  but  when  the  attempt  is  made 
to  derive  all  the  stagecraft  and  the  devices  of  the 
Corpus  Christi  plays,  even  the  shape  and  arrange- 
ment of  the  stages  and  the  sedes,  from  a  direct  and 
precise  imitation  of  the  church  stage,  then  the  de- 
velopmental theory  has  been  wholly  misapplied.  It 
is  not  fair  to  the  managers  and  directors  of  the 
processional  pageants  of  the  fourteenth,  fifteenth, 
and  sixteenth  centuries ;  it  attributes  to  them  flabby 
brains  and  minds  without  the  power  of  initiative. 
In  their  plays,  for  instance,  they  did  not  put  heaven 
on  the  upper  stage  and  hell  below  merely  because 
the  liturgical  drama  had  been  staged  in  the  church 
with  heaven  in  the  rood-loft  and  hell  in  the  crypt, 
but  because  the  almost  universal  idea  was  that 
these  two  places  had  definite  geographical  posi- 
tions, heaven  above  us  and  hell  below  us.  And 
the  managers  of  the  pageants  did  not  build  their 
stages  on  wheels  and  put  their  sedes  or  I  oca 
thereon  to  resemble  the  plans  as  used  in  the  church, 
but  for  the  better  advantage  of  the  spectators,  that 
all  might  be  able  to  see  and  hear. 


Atl.^) 


#-f\ 


A  \ .  fil 


112      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

Changes.  On  the  contrary,  however,  it  would 
not  be  at  all  just  to  say  that  the  players  and  man- 
agers in  the  Corpus  Christi  days  were  consciously 
and  purposely  making  their  plans  different  from 
those  of  the  church.  The  liturgical  drama  had 
been  an  interesting,  spiritual,  and  stimulating 
power  for  good,  and  it  was  undoubtedly  originally 
their  intention  merely  to  reproduce  it  in  the  open, 
with  whatever  modifications  might  be  necessary,  as 
a  continued  influence  for  good  upon  all  persons 
viewing  the  performances.  And  this  idea  seems 
to  have  been  carried  out,  but  with  so  many  and 
such  varied  modifications  that,  so  far  as  the  present 
writer  has  been  able  to  perceive,  the  only  practice 
which  was  not  altered — an  important  one  by  the 
way — was  that  of  using  a  separate  sedes,  locus,  or 
domus  for  each  important  scene  or  character. 

'Sedes"  and  "Plateae".  The  terms,  sedes,\ 
oca,  or  domus,  were  used  indiscriminately  to 
mean  either  the  seats  of  the  actors  where  they 
remained  when  not  participating  in  the  play,  or 
places  to  which  on  some  occasions  the  action  of 
the  scene  was  transferred.  These  sedes,  loca,  or 
domus,  so  far  as  we  can  learn,  were  always  defi- 
nitely localized  by  means  of  appropriate  decora- 
tions and  properties  and  were  in  distinct  contrast 
to  the  platea,  which  was  the  space  in  between  the 
sedes  and  not  definitely  localized.  M.  Petit  de 
Julleville  has  described  at  some  length  the  sys- 
tem of  staging  employed  for  the  representation  of 


(¥ 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING       113 

the  medieval  French  plays,  and  his  description 
may  well  be  applied  here : — 

Le  moyen  age  avait  congu  tout  differemment  la  multipli- 
cite  dcs  lieux  dans  la  representation  dramatique.  Pour 
jouer  un  mystere,  on  disposait  d'avance,  ensemble,  a  la 
fois,  sur  une  scene  unique,  les  lieux  divers,  si  nombreux 
qu'ils  fussent,  6u  Taction  devait  successivement  se  passer.  y 
.  .  .  mais  au  cours  d'une  meme  journee  la  scene  etait  / 
immuable  et  devait  renfermer  la  representation,  ou  I'indi-  '* 
cation  tout  au  moins,  des  lieux,  souvent  tort  nombreux, 
ou  se  passait  Taction  dans  cette  journee.  En  un  mot,  la 
scene  etait  permanente,  a  la  fois  unique  et  multiple,  le  ? 
decor  ne  changeait  jamais;  c'est  Taction  qui  voyageait  dans 
Tenceinte  de  cette  vaste  scene  et  se  transportait  successive- 
ment aux  divers  endroits  representes:  allait  de  Rome  a 
Constantinople,  de  Jerusalem  en  Espagne,  traversait  la 
mer  ou  les  deserts,  et  feignait  un  long  voyage  entre  deux 
pays  figures  sur  la  scene  a  dix  pieds  Tun  de  Tautre.  Les 
cnfants  dans  leurs  jeux  ont  des  fictions  analogues;  mais 
toutefois  ce  systeme  theatral,  qui  nous  parait  pueril,  a 
suffi  a  Shakespeare.2 

As  M.  Petit  de  Julleville  suggests,  there  is  a  \'\ 
naive   resemblance  between  these   domus  on   thei] 
primitive  stage  and  the  "  homes  "  of  the  make-be-!  -  J 
lieve  world  in  the  children's  nursery,  where  eachl   i 
little  would-be  woman  has  her  house  in  a  corner' 
of  the  room  and  receives  her  friends  when  they 
come  to  visit  her.     Shakspere  on  two  occasions  'j  //y 
employed  the  same  system  of  staging,  as  M.  Petit 
de  Julleville  intimates,  and  many  striking  resem- 
blances are  to  be  found  between  the  medieval  stage 
and  our  theatre  of  to-day.     We  have  miniature 
houses  on  our  stages,  imitative  forests,  pretended 

2  Histoire  de  la  Langue  et  de  la  LittSrature  francaise,  il 
415-16. 


p 


114      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

city  streets,  etc.,  which  we  are  willing,  for  the  sake 
of  the  enjoyment,  to  make  ourselves  feel  are  real. 
Our  stage  houses  and  our  stage  streets,  for  in- 
stance, we  know  are  unreal,  yet  we  allow  an  actor 
to  enter  the  street  from  one  of  the  houses,  meet  a 
friend  perhaps  at  his  doorway,  and  go  up  and  sit 
on  the  verandah  of  a  neighbor's  house.  Or  per- 
haps the  friends  at  another  time  meet  at  no  special 
place,  a  field,  a  forest,  or  maybe  in  front  of  a  bare, 
front  drop-curtain — in  other  words,  just  some- 
where. 

Method  of  Staging.  In  the  same  way  the 
actors  on  the  Corpus  Christi  stage  were  attempting 
to  reproduce  a  similar  imaginary,  imitative,  and 
symbolical  world.  Nor  was  it  an  altogether  crude 
and  fanciful  one.  They  had  their  seats,  their 
homes,  which  by  a  temporary  suspense  of  realism 
both  they  and  their  audience  were  able  to  convert 
into  real  ones.  If  they  needed  a  castle  in  their 
little  world,  they  built  a  miniature  imitation  at  one 
side  of  the  stage  with  fanes  and  battlements  on  the 
top,  and  the  lord  of  the  castle  sat  there  with  his 
soldiers  and  subjects  around  him.  If  they  wanted 
a  temple,  they  said  "  let's  play  like  "  this  shelter  or 
canopy  is  a  temple,  and  Annas  and  Caiaphas  shall 
be  here.  Or  if  Herod's  palace  was  to  be  presented, 
they  set  a  throne  at  his  sedes^  and  any  one  who 
wanted  to  speak  to  the  king  must  come  to  that 
specific  place  to  see  him.  And  when  the  action 
was  such  as  might  happen  anywhere,  the  players 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING       115 

walked  away  from  their  places  into  the  open 
platea,  the  unlocated  part  of  the  stage,  and  there 
the  conversation  was  carried  on. 

Wakefield  "  Shepherds'  Play,  II."  Thus  in  the 
Wakefield  Second  Shepherds'  Play  the  action  be- 
gins on  the  open  platea^  which  is  not  a  definitely 
localized  place,  but  any  spot  where  shepherds  guard 
their  sheep.  One  by  one  the  herdsmen  enter,  Mak 
coming  last,  and  all  lie  down  and  apparently  go  to 
sleep.  Mak's  sleep  is  not  so  deep  as  he  pretends, 
however,  and  while  the  others  are  resting,  he  jumps 
up,  steals  a  sheep,  and  carries  it  to  his  house,  a  de- 
finitely localized  place,  where  he  knocks  and  calls 
to  his  wife : 

"how,  gyll,  art  thou  In?    gett  vs  som  lyght". 

To  which  Gyll  replies: 

"  Who  makys  sich  dyn  this  tyme  of  the  nyght? 
I  am  sett  for  to  spyn  ",  etc. — 11.  296-98. 

She  lets  him  in  and  takes  the  sheep,  however,  and 
he  returns  to  the  sleeping  shepherds  in  time  to 
wake  up  with  them.  Their  sheep  is  missed,  of 
course;  Mak's  house  is  searched;  and  the  sheep  is 
found  in  the  cradle.  The  shepherds  have  justj 
finished  "blanketing"  Mak  when  the  Gloria  inl 
Excelsis  is  begun  at  the  other  end  of  the  stage,  at 
Bethlehem,  another  definitely  localized  sedes^  and 
the  shepherds  all  journey  there  to  worship  the  new4 
born  King. 


116     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

"  Purification  of  Mary  ".  Or,  if  the  scene  be  the 
Purification  of  Mary  on  a  stage  at  Chester,  we  find 
the  pageant-car  with  two  floors;  the  upper  one  is 
heaven,  the  lower  one  Bethlehem  and  Jerusalem, 
At  the  extreme  right  and  on  a  raised  part  of  the 
lower  stage  is  an  altar-like  representation  of  the  in- 
terior of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem.  On  the  extreme 
left  is  Joseph's  home  in  Bethlehem ;  and  two  apple- 
trees  are  clamped  to  the  floor  of  the  pageant  to 
represent  the  country  between  Bethlehem  and 
Jerusalem.®  The  scene  opens  with  Simeon  in  the 
temple  reading  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  about  the 
coming  of  the  Christ.  He  reads  that  a  virgin  shall 
bear  a  son.  But  he  objects  to  the  word  "  virgin  "; 
so  he  erases  it  and  writes  "A  good  woman"  in- 
stead. Anna  and  he  join  in  conversation  at  this 
point;  and  an  angel  descends  from  Heaven,  the 
floor  above,  and  writes  the  original  word  "  virgm  ". 
Again  Simeon  erases  the  objectionable  word,  and 
again  the  angel  descends  and  restores  the  original 
reading;  but  this  time  the  priest  sees  the  angel, 
who  tells  him  that  he  shall  not  die  before  he  has 
seen  the  Christ.  Simeon  blesses  God  for  his 
mercies,  then  goes  outside  the  temple,  de  alio  loco 
procull  a  templo,  and  seats  himself  in  expectation 
of  the  coming  of  Christ.  At  this  point  Joseph  and 
Mary  in  their  house  in  Bethlehem  at  the  other  end 
of  the  stage  begin  talking  and  decide  to  go  up  to 

\V  *  ^f'  Morris,  Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and  Tudor 
'.  Reigns,  p.  305.    This  will  be  discussed  more  fully  later, 
pp.  178-79. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING       117 

the  temple  at  Jerusalem  for  her  purification.  They 
start  out,  pass  by  the  two  apple-trees  representing 
the  country  between  the  two  cities,  and  in  a  half- 
minute's  time  have  gone  the  whole  distance. 
Simeon  receives  the  Christ  in  his  arms  and  ac- 
knowledges him  as  his  Lord.  Anna  does  the  same. 
But  while  the  group  are  conversing,  the  child 
crawls  down  and  goes  into  the  temple.  Joseph  and 
Mary  now  start  on  their  way  home  and,  a  little 
later,  miss  him;  and  while  they  are  seeking  him 
the  child  is  disputing  with  the  doctors  in  the  temple, 
where  they  finally  return  and  find  him. 

Interest  in  the  Action.  There  is  no  confusion  in 
such  a  stage-system  as  this.  Nor  in  a  certain  sense 
can  there  be  said  to  be  any  great  amount  of  crudity. 
According  to  our  ideas  of  stage-craft  to-day  such 
scenes  would  seem  to  indicate  on  the  part  of  the 
dramatists  of  the  time  a  lack  of  knowledge  of  the 
fitness,  proportion,  and  possibilities  of  the  stages 
which  they  were  using;  but,  as  the  audience  of 
that  day  saw  it,  there  was  no  crudity  at  all.  Their 
interest  was  centered  almost  wholly  in  the  action, 
almost  none  at  all  in  the  setting,  or  background. 
It  mattered  not  to  them  whether  Christ  was  in  a 
real  stable,  or  a  real  manger,  or  whether  the  setting 
was  one  from  Bethlehem  or  London;  what  they 
cared  for  were  the  antics  of  the  rustic  shepherds, 
the  splendid  robes  of  the  three  kings,  the  glorious 
gifts  which  these  kings  presented,  and  the  adora- 
tion shown  the  Christ.    It  was  the  action  of  the 


118     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

play,  the  movement  of  the  characters  in  the  scenes, 
not  the  backgrounds  to  these  scenes,  to  which  the 
audiences  devoted  their  attention;  and  so  long  as 
the  pageants  and  the  sedes  were  decorated  "  costely 
and  fyne",  their  dramatic  and  esthetic  taste  was 
sufficiently  satisfied. 

The  Pageant-Car  as  a  "  Sedes  ".  The  relation  of 
these  pageant-cars  to  each  other,  however,  and  the 
relation  of  the  sedes  to  the  pageant-cars  has  been 
the  cause  of  much  discussion  about  Corpus  Christi 
staging.  For  example,  it  has  been  held  by  many 
scholars  that,  though  the  stationary  plays — such 
as  the  so-called  Ludus  Coventrice,  the  Digby,  or 
the  Cornish  plays — used  the  system  of  simulta- 
neous scenery,  of  exposing  two  or  more  separate 
scenes  on  the  same  stage  at  the  same  time,  yet  the 
processional  plays,  such  as  those  at  Beverley, 
Chester,  and  York,  were  simple  in  scene, — in  other 
words,  that  the  pageant-wagons  in  the  latter  plays 
never  represented  more  than  one  place  at  a  time, 
and  that,  if  additional  sedes  were  needed,  they  were 
supplied  by  extra  stages  in  the  streets.  Or,  to  put 
it  another  way,  it  has  been  maintained  that  the 
pageant-wagon  in  the  processional  play  was  not  re- 
garded as  a  stage  at  all,  but  as  a  single  sedes,  or 
locus,  representing  a  fixed  locality,  and  that  the 
ground  about  the  wagon  was  felt  to  be  the  stage. 

The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  to  show  that  the 
pageant-wagon  was  the  stage,  that  the  separate 
sedes  were  placed  on  this  stage,  and  that  none  of 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING       119 

our   extant   processional   plays   demand   a   larger  ; 
stage  than  may  be  met  with  on  the  pageant-wagoni  J 
Collier's  Account.     The  apparent  originator  of  / 
this    thus-far    uncontradicted    theory    of    Corpus 
Christi  staging  was  J.  Payne  Collier,  whose  state- 
ment of  his  belief  was  as  follows : 

They  [the  plays]  were  acted  on  temporary  erections  of 

timber,  indifferently  called  scaffolds,  stages  and  pageants; 
and  there  is  no  doubt  that  in  some  instances  they  were 
placed  upon  wheels,  in  order  that  they  might  be  removed 
to  various  quarters  of  large  towns  or  cities,  and  the  plays 
exhibited  in  succession.  The  testimony  of  Archdeacon 
Rogers,  who  wrote  his  account  of  Chester  prior  to  the 
death  of  Elizabeth,  seems  decisive  upon  this  point,  as  far 
as  the  performances  there  are  concerned.  .  .  .  The 
same  authority  would  lead  to  the  conclusion,  that  only  one 
scaffold,  stage,  or  pageant,  was  present  at  the  same  time 
in  the  same  place,  and  doubtless  such  was  the  fact,  ac- 
cording to  the  arrangement  of  the  plays  to  which  Arch- 
deacon Rogers  refers.  It  is  indisputable,  however,  that 
the  Chester  Miracle-plays,  as  they  exist  in  the  British 
Museum,  could  not  have  been  so  represented.  Some  of 
the  pieces  require  the  employment  of  two,  and  even  of 
three  scaffolds,  independent  of  other  contrivances:  the 
street  also  must  have  been  used,  as  several  of  the  char- 
acters enter  and  go  out  on  horseback.* 

Matthews*s  Account.  This  idea  was  adopted 
by  Mr.  Brander  Matthews  and  crystallized  as 
follows : — 

Thus  we  see  that  in  France  the  stations  used  inside  the 
church  were  set  up  side  by  side  on  the  open-air  stage  out- 

*  History  of  English  Dramatic  Poetry,  ii.  77-9. 


120      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

side  of  the  church,  where  they  were  known  as  mansions. 
In  England  the  stations  were  separated  and  each  was 
shown  by  itself,  being  called  a  "pageant".  Sometimes 
these  were  stationary,  and  sometimes  they  were  ambula- 
tory. .  .  .  For  certain  of  the  episodes,  such  as  the 
Trial  of  Christ,  for  example,  two  floats  were  required, 
and  the  performers  passed  from  one  to  the  other  as  the 
incidents  of  the  narrative  might  require.^ 

Chambers's  Account.  Mr.  E.  K.  Chambers,  in 
turn,  accepted  the  same  idea: — 

It  [the  stage  on  the  pageant- wagon]  is  simply  the  raised 
locus,  sedes,  or  domus  of  the  stationary  play  put  upon 
wheels.  Just  as  the  action  of  the  stationary  play  took 
place  partly  on  the  various  sedes,  partly  in  the  platea,  so 
Coventry  actors  come  and  go  to  and  from  the  pageant  in 
the  street.  *  Here  Erode  ragis  in  the  pagond  &  in  the 
strete  also*,  says  a  stage  direction.  It  should  be  observed 
that  the  plays  at  Coventry  were  exceptionally  long,  and 
that  scaffolds  seem  to  have  been  attached  to  the  pageant 
proper  in  order  to  get  sufficient  space.® 

Albright's  Summary.  And,  finally,  Mr.  V.  E. 
Albright  has  accepted  and  summarized  the  com- 
bined theory  of  the  preceding  writers  as  follows : 

There  are,  however,  certain  plays  in  the  cycles  which 
require  two  or  three  distinct  locations  with  characters 
travelling  from  one  location  to  another.  We  can  con- 
ceive of  a  very  spacious  wagon  with  two  or  three  raised 
platforms  on  it,  and  the  characters  making  a  circle  out  in 
the  street  when  they  are  supposed  to  pass  from  one  place 
to  another;  or  we  can  conceive  of  certain  actors  taking 

^Modern  Philology,  i.  87-8. 
«  Mediaeval  Stage,  ii.  138. 


CORPUS    CHRISTI    STAGING        121 

their  stand  in  the  street  as  though  they  were  on  raised 
platforms,  and  passing  from  these  spots  to  and  from  the 
pageant  wagon  as  the  action  requires.  But  there  is  some 
evidence  of  another  and  a  far  more  reasonable  way.  The 
quotation  from  Rogers  ends  with  the  sentence,  "  And  also 
scafolds  and  stages  [were]  made  in  the  streetes  in  those 
places  where  they  determined  to  play  theire  pagiantes". 
Mr.  Sharp,  while  searching  "  the  ancient  Books  and  Docu- 
ments belonging  to  the  Corporation  [of  Coventry],  and 
the  remaining  Account  Books  and  other  writings  of  the 
Trading  Companies",  was  constantly  meeting  with  items 
for  extra  scaffolds  on  wheels,  and  eventually  came  to  the 
following  conclusion:  "Various  charges  in  the  Pageant 
Accounts  demonstrate  that  at  Coventry,  as  at  Chester,  it 
^as  customary  to  have  scaffolds  or  stages  for  the  accom- 
modation of  the  spectators:  a  few  instances  will  suffice: — 
making  of  a  new  post  to  the  scaffold; — a  tryndyll  and  a 
theal  to  ditto; — two  new  scaffold  wheels  6s.  8d. ; — iron 
pins  and  colters  to  the  scaffold  wheels; — boards  about  the 
scaffold; — three  boards  and  a  ledge  for  the  scaffold; — 
clamps  and  iron  works; — setting  in  of  the  Pageant  and 
scaffolds; — driving  the  Pageant  and  scaffolds.  From 
these  items  it  is  evident  that  the  *  scaffolds  *  were  placed 
upon  wheels,  and  moved  with  the  Pageant,  to  which  it 
probably  was  attached,  as  the  usual  charges  are  for  *  hav- 
ing out  of  the  Pageant,  setting  in  the  scaffolds:  and  set- 
ting in  of  the  Pageant  and  scaffolds'  to  the  Pageant- 
house  after  the  performance  was  over".    .    .    . 

A  more  useful  and  necessary  place  for  these  Incon- 
spicuous scaffolds,  inconspicuous  both  in  the  processions 
and  in  the  accounts  of  the  guilds,  would  be  in  the  staging- 
apparatus.  One  or  two  of  these  "stages"  could  accom- 
pany the  pageant  that  was  playing  a  double-  or  treble- 
scene  play,  and  could  be  used  in  the  performance  in  the 
same  way  as  the  scaffolds  around  the  castle  in  The  Castle 
of  Perseverance.    In  this  way  a  difficulty  would  be  re- 


122      CORPUS   CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

moved  in  the  staging  of  some  of  the  more  complex  plays 
in  the  processional  cycles.    .    .    . 

My  idea,  therefore,  is  that  the  pageant  wagons  sufficed 
in  some  of  the  plays  in  the  processional  cycles,  while  in 
others,  one  or  two  plain  scaffolds  with  few  or  no  proper- 
ties accompanied  each  pageant  carriage.  In  certain  cities, 
as  at  Coventry,  these  scaffolds  were  placed  on  wheels  and 
drawn  along  with  the  pageants  that  needed  them;  in 
others,  as  at  Chester,  they  were  "made  in  the  streetes  in 
those  places  where  they  determined  to  play  theire 
pagiantes".  In  both  cases  they  were  arranged  at  a  dis- 
tance of  fifty  to  seventy-five  feet  from  the  main  carriage. 
The  spectacular  scene  took  place  on  the  pageant  wagon, 
and  the  unscenic  one  or  two  on  the  scaffold  or  scaffolds 
near  by;  and  the  characters  passed  freely  from  one  to  the 
other,  doing  part  of  the  acting  on  the  plateae,  just  as  in 
the  stationary  play.^ 

In  other  words,  if  the  present  writer  has  cor- 
rectly interpreted  the  four  authors  quoted,  they 
regard  the  pageant-wagon  of  the  processional  play 
as  equivalent  to  a  single  sedes,  or  to  the  platea,  in 
the  church  or  on  the  stationary  stage,  rather  than 
to  the  stage  itself.  A  pageant-wagon,  for  instance, 
that  corresponded  to  a  sedes  would  be  used  for 
what  Mr.  Albright  terms  a  "  spectacular ",  or 
propertied,  scene,  and  one  that  corresponded  to  a 
platea  would  be  used  for  unpropertied  and  un- 
located  scenes.  The  same  stage  would  always 
represent  one  and  the  same  fixed  locality  and  could 
never  be  used  at  the  same  time  for  two  distinct  and 
definitely  located  places;  and  if  any  play  required 

f  Shaksperian  Stage,  pp.  25-7. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING        123 

two  or  more  propertied  sedes,  then  extra  pageants 
or  extra  scaffolds  were  procured  to  supply  the  need 
for  keeping  the  locations  separate.  Oddly  enough 
there  is  no  evidence  that  the  processional  plays 
were  ever  so  staged... 

Basis  of  the  Theory.  The  only  apparently 
genuine  evidence  substantiating  this  view  consists 
of  the  two  passages  cited  by  Mr.  Albright  from. 
Sharp  and  the  Rogers  Breviary  of  Chester.  But, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  testimony  which  these  pas- 
sages have  been  supposed  to  contain  can  not  be  found 
when  the  passages  are  subjected  to  a  critical  exam- 
ination. Sharp's  account,  to  be  sure,  is  just  as 
Mr.  Albright  has  given  it,  but,  as  Professor  Manly 
has  pointed  out  to  the  present  writer,  Mr.  Albright 
has  failed  to  notice  that  Sharp  does  not  distinguish 
between  the  earlier  Coventry  pageants  and  the  new 
play  of  the  Destruction  of  Jerusalem  in  1584,  or 
that,  without  exception,  every  reference  to  a  scaf- 
fold in  the  accounts  as  given  by  Sharp  in  his  Cov- 
entry Mysteries  occurs  after  1580,  the  last  year 
in  which  the  ancient  Corpus  Christi  pageants 
were  presented.  There  are  items  before  1581, 
plenty  of  them,  "  for  drynkynge  at  the  pagent 
in  havinge  forthe ",  for  "  the  reparellynge  of 
the  pagantte  and  the  expences  of  havyng  it  in 
and  f urthe  ",  for  bringing  the  pageant  "  in  to  gos- 
ford-stret ",  "  for  the  horssyng  of  the  padgeant ", 
"  for  swepyng  the  pagent  &  dressyng ",  for  "  pe 
havynge  out  &  settynge  in  of  the  pageand  ",  and  for 


124      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

numerous  other  expenses  of  a  similar  nature.  But 
in  not  a  single  case  is  there  any  mention  of  an 
additional  scaffold  before  1584,  when  the  Destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem  was  given.  As  soon  as  that  year 
is  reached,  however,  we  find  immediately  payments 
made  "  to  Cookeson  for  makynge  of  a  whele  to  the 
skaffolde ",  "  for  the  settinge  &  drivinge  off  the 
pagyn  &  skaffoldes  ",  "  for  mendynge  off  the  skaf- 
folds  ",  and  for  other  items  of  the  same  kind. 

"  Destruction  of  Jerusalem  ".  On  the  other  hand 
an  examination  of  the  accounts  for  the  Destruction 
of  Jerusalem  discloses  the  fact  that  a  huge  stage 
must  have  been  needed,  a  much  larger  one  than 
could  be  carried  through  the  streets  on  wheels. 
Hence  the  use  of  the  scaffolds, — to  lengthen  or 
widen  the  old  stage  and  to  allow  room  for  more 
sedes  on  the  same  platform.  For  instance,  in  the 
expense  accounts  for  the  Destruction  of  Jerusalem 
we  find  that  the  smiths'  musicians  accompanied 
their  wagon  and  played  "  on  theyre  instruments  in 
the  Pagent ".  Of  these  musicians  there  were  a 
trumpeter,  a  flute-player,  "  ij  drumme  players ", 
and  a  chorus  of  we  know  not  how  many  voices. 
In  addition,  there  were  twelve  characters,  besides 
the  soldiers, — six  of  the  actors,  however,  playing 
double  parts.  Some  of  the  players  were  arrayed 
in  Irish  mantles;  there  was  a  storm  and  thunder; 
and  a  temple,  probably  Solomon's,  was  somewhere 
on  the  stage.  The  cappers,  too,  had  a  temple, 
twelve  soldiers  in  red  coats,  six  musicians  besides 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING        125 

a  trumpeter,  and  probably  other  things  in  propor- 
tion.    So  one  may  justly  say  that  the  Destruction     J 
of  Jerusalem  was  a  play  with  far  more  "  business  "  / 
than  the  simple  Corpus  Christi  pageants  and  mu^ 
consequetatly  have  necessitated  far  more  playiiig 
space.     And  it  seems   fair  to   conclude   that  the  y 
extra  scaffolds,  of  which  numerous  mentions  are  [ 
found  in  1584  and  later,  but  not  before,  must  have  \ 
been  to  afford  this  extra  space. 

Rogers's  Statement.  Again:  Mr.  Albright 
has  cited  the  supposed  statement  of  Archdeacon 
Rogers  of  Chester  that  "scafoldes  and  stages 
[were]  made  in  the  streetes  in  those  places  where 
they  determined  to  playe  theire  pagiantes ".  / 
Ordish,  too,  called  attention  to  the  same  statement  \ 
in  his  Early  London  Theatres^  some  years  ago. 
But  here  again  a  careful  examination  of  the  evi- 
dence will  show  not  only  that  its  authenticity  is 
questionable,  but  that  probability  is  overwhelmingly 
against  its  evidence  being  accepted  as  reliable  for 
matters  of  detail  connected  with  the  staging  of  the 
Corpus  Christi  plays.  And  there  are  three  definite 
reasons  why  it  cannot  be  entirely  relied  upon :  (i) 
we  cannot  be  certain  whether  Robert  Rogers  or  his 
son  wrote  the  material  about  "  ye  whitson  playes  " ; 
(2)  we  cannot  be  sure  that  either  father  or  son  ever 
saw  a  Corpus  Christi  play  presented;  and  (3)  if  the 
father  was  writing  about  the  cycles  as  he  saw  them, 
the  probability  is  that  he  was  describing  them  as 

8  p.  10. 


126     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

he  last  saw  them,  which  was  the  last  time  they 
were  presented  at  Chester,  1574,  when  they  were 
given,  not  regularly,  but  all  in  "  on  part  of  the 
Citty". 

(i)  The  authority  of  the  Rogers's  Breviary 
cannot  be  trusted  for  minute  details  with  regard  to 
the  staging  of  the  Whitson  plays,  because  we  can 
not  tell  what  part  was  the  work  of  the  Archdeacon 
and  what  of  his  son.  For  example,  Harl.  MS  1948 
tells  us  that  the  collections  in  the  "  breauarye  "  of 
Chester  were  "  collected  by  the  Reuerend :  mr  Rob- 
ert Rogers,  Batchlor  in  Diuinitye,  Archdeacon  of 
Chester,  and  Prebunde  in  the  Cathedrall  Church 
of  Chester "  and  were  written  "  per  Dauid 
Rogers:  1609:  July:  3".  Now  the  Archdeacon 
died  in  1595,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  Breviary, 
written  by  his  son  in  1609,  fourteen  years  after 
his  father's  death,  certainly  contains  matter  sub- 
sequent to  1595.  Hence  one  cannot  say  what  or 
how  much  of  the  matter  in  the  MSS  was  "  col- 
lected "  by  the  father.  Hence,  too,  it  is  possible 
that  the  matter  concerning  the  pageants  may  not 
have  been  collected  by  the  father,  but  that  it  may 
have  been  written  by  the  son  from  mere  traditions 
of  old  Corpus  Christi  days.  And  hence,  finally, 
we  certainly  cannot  "rely  entirely  on  the  material 
about  the  Whitson  plays  for  matters  of  minute  de- 
tail, such  as  the  exact  use  of  the  stages  on  the 
Corpus  Christi  stage. 

(2)  We  cannot  be  sure  that  either  the  father  or 


CORPUS    CHRISTI    STAGING        127 

the  son  ever  saw  a  Corpus  Christi  play  presented. 
For  example,  their  Breviary  says  of  the  plays  in 
1574,  the  last  year  they  were  given: — 

These  7  pagiantes  weare  played  vpon  ye  third  dayc, 
beinge  wensedaye;  &  these  whitson  playes  weare  played 
in  Chester  anno  domini :  1574:  Sr  lohn  Sauage,  knight, 
beinge  Mayor  of  Chester,  which  was  the  laste  tyme'they 
weare  played.  And  we  haue  all  cause  to  power  out  our 
prayeres  before  God,  that  neither  we  nor  oure  posterities 
after  us,  maye  neuer  see  ye  like  abomination  of  desolation, 
with  such  a  Clowde  of  Ignorance  to  defyle  with  so  highe 
a  hand  ye  sacred  scriptures  of  God:  But  of  ye  mercye 
of  oure  God  for  ye  tyme  of  oure  Ignorance  he  regardes  it 
not:  and  thus  much  in  briefe  of  ye  whitson  playes.® 

Here  then  we  find  the  writer  of  this  document 
violently  and  religiously  opposed  to  the  pageants; 
and,  having  such  scruples,  it  is  more  than  doubtful 
whether  he  could  ever  have  allowed  himself  to  be 
present  at  an  actual  presentation  of  any  of  the 
plays.  If  it  were  the  Archdeacon  writing,  he  prob- 
ably had  seen  the  scaffolds  in  the  streets  in  1574, 
whether  for  spectators,  musicians,  or  what,  he  did 
not  know, — but  it  is  very  probable  that  he  had  not 
been  at  the  plays ;  and  to  him  the  platforms  in  the 
streets  were  both  "  scafoldes  and  stages  ",  though 
their  exact  use  he  did  not  know. 

(3)  If  Archdeacon  Rogers  was  the  writer,  it 
would  seem  probable  that  he  must  have  had  in 
mind  the  last  presentation  of  the  Corpus  Christi 

®  Furnivall,  Digby  Mysteries,  pp.  xxii-iii. 


128      CORPUS   CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

plays  at  Chester  in  1574;  for  in  that  year,  we  learn 

,  from  Randle  Holme's  collections,   ''  The  whitson 

^    playes  [were]  played  in  pageantes  in  the  Cittye:  at 

midsomer,  to  the  great  dislike  of  many,  because  the 

playe  was  in  on  part  of  the  Citty  ".^^    And  if  the 

pageants  were  given  in  one  place  in  the  city,  being, 

moreover,  a  revival  after  a  lapse  of  three  years  and 

\        on  that  account  probably  presented  with  greater 

i        eclat  than  ever  before,  it  is  not  impossible  that 

extra  scaffolds  and  stages  were  really  built  in  the 

streets  for  the  spectators,  the  musicians,  etc.,  and 

hence  that  Rogers  in  referring  to  the  pageants  was 

/    thinking  of  them  on  this  one  occasion  of  twenty 

/     or  twenty-five  years  before  and  writing  of  them  as 

/      they  had  appeared  in  all  the  splendor  of  prepara- 

f        tion  for  what  had  proved  to  be  their  final  perform- 

j       ance. 

/  To  state  the  case  quite  fairly,  then :  it  seems  that 

/        any  evidence  drawn  from  the  Rogers  document, 

V       even  if  there  were  no  other  grounds  to  the  contrary 

j      — as  there  are, — is  entirely  too  flimsy  to  be  the  basis 

of    a    whole   theory   on    Corpus    Christi    staging. 

i      Sharp's  account  at  Coventry  has  been  shown  to 

\     apply  only  to  a  special  non-Corpus  Christi  play, 

\    the    Destruction    of   Jerusalem,    and    the    Rogers 

I  Breviary,  if  written  by  the  elder  man,  would  seem 

I  to  refer,  not  only  to  pageants  which  the  writer  of 

I  the  document  had  probably  not  seen,  but  to  the  ir- 

\  regular  revived  pageants  of  a  particular  year,  1574, 

\    10  Furnivall,  Digby  Mysteries,  p.  xxvi  n. 

\ 


CORPUS    CHRISTI   STAGING        129 

when  all  the  scenes,  after  an  interval  of  three  years, 
during  which  no  plays  had  been  produced,  were 
presented  '*  in  on  part  of  the  Citty  ". 

This  evidence  seems  all  the  more  untrustworthy, 
too,  when  we  come  to  consider  that  in  all  the  exist- 
ing records  and  accounts  of  the  plays,  records  and 
accounts  which  extend  over  two  hundred  years  of 
time,  no  other  mention  whatever,  so  far  as  the 
present  writer  has  been  able  to  discover,  is  to  be 
found  of  extra  stages  and  scaffolds.  And  it  seems 
both  inconceivable  that  a  thory  of  any  con- 
sequence could  have  been  built  on  so  slight  a  basis 
and,  hence,  fortunate  that  a  large  amount  of  other 
evidence  is  at  hand  to  prove  conclusively  that  extra 
stages  were  not  needed,  that  more  than  one  located 
scene  was  to  be  found  on  a  single  stage,  and, 
therefore,  that  the  processional  wagon  was  re- 
garded as  the  stage  itself  rather  than  as  a  simple 
sedes. 

The  Wakefield  Plays.  In  discussing  this 
phase  of  the  staging  of  the  Corpus  Christi  plays 
references  will  be  made  freely  to  those  of  the 
Wakefield  cycle,  even  though  they  seem,  from  the 
MS  that  has  come  down  to  us,  undoubtedly  to  have 
been  produced  on  stationary  platforms.  For 
example,  in  the  Killing  of  Ah  el  the  Garcio  says: 
Now  old  and  yong,  or  that  ye  weynd. 

The  same  blissyng  withoutten  end, 

All  sam  then  shall  ye  haue.^^ — 11.  443-5. 

11  Cf.  Ebert,  Die  englischen  Mysterien,  p.  66  n. 


130      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

From  this  speech  of  Cain's  servant  it  seems  clear 
that  the  plays  of  the  Towneley  cycle,  like  those  of 
the  Digby  Conversion  of  St.  Paul,  were  produced 
on  a  fixed  stage  and  that  the  audience  moved  from 
one  scaffold  to  another  as  the  scenes  succeeded  each 
other. 

On  the  other  hand,  however,  it  seems  fair  to 
refer  to  the  plays  of  the  Towneley  cycle  for 
methods  of  presentation  because  they  were  pro- 
duced by  the  craftsmen  of  Wakefield  just  as  in 
other  towns,  because  several  of  the  scenes  have 
been  shown  by  Miss  Smith  and  Mr.  Pollard  to  be 
practically  identical  with  the  corresponding  scenes 
in  the  York  cycle,  and  because  in  other  points  of 
technique,  conventions,  etc.,  these  plays  show  that 
they  are  of  the  regular  Corpus  Christi  type.  There- 
fore it  may  be  fairly  assumed  that  the  Wakefield 
plays  developed  regularly,  just  as  the  other  Corpus 
Christi  cycles  did,  but  that  they  have  gone  one  step 
in  advance  of  the  other  plays  and  have  become 
stationary  in  order  to  accommodate  themselves  to 
the  necessities  of  the  annual  Wakefield  fair.^* 
Hence  we  may  be  entirely  justified  in  referring  to 
the  Wakefield  plays  for  evidence  as  to  methods  of 
presentation. 

Stationary  and  Processional  Stages.  Like- 
wise evidence  as  to  methods  of  presentation  will 
be  adduced  from  the  Norwich  pageants  and  other 
plays  given  on  movable  stages,  whether  those  stages 

1*  Cf.  Chambers,  Mediaeval  Stage,  ii.  416. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING       131 

during  the  action  were  placed  on  a  street  corner, 
or  in  the  market-place,  or  in  a  play-field,  "  play- 
stool  ",  or  any  definite  playing-place  where  the 
crowds  of  people  might  be  shut  off  and  money 
collected  for  entrance.  This  distinction  is  to  be 
made,  because  some,  like  Mr.  Osborn  Water- 
house,^^  have  been  confused  through  failure  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  two.  For  example,  Mr. 
Waterhouse  says  of  the  Norwich  grocers'  pag- 
eant-wagon :  "  The  pageant  itself  was  *  a  Howse 
of  Waynskott,  paynted  and  buylded  on  a 
Carte,  with  fowre  whelys',  which  latter,  on  stub- 
born occasions,  were  lubricated  with  soap  ".^* 
And  yet  he  says  of  the  playing-place :  "  In  1489, 
a  Corpus  Christi  procession  was  held,  and  the 
pageants  were  taken  in  procession  ad  capell  in 
Campis  Norwici;  but  we  are  not  definitely  in- 
formed whether  the  plays  were  actually  performed 
at  that  time  and  at  that  place:  it  is  however  very 
probable.  .  .  .  The  only  reference  to  a  place  of 
performance  known  to  us  is  the  somewhat  vague 
one  mentioned  above  in  connection  with  the  proces- 
sion, and,  so  far  as  we  know,  there  is  no  authority 
for  believing  that  the  plays  at  Norwich  went  in 
circuit  and  were  played  at  *  stations '  in  different 
parts  of  the  town.  Probability  is  in  favour  of  a 
stationary  place  of  performance,  as  was  the  case 
with  the  Coventry  plays,  the  Cornish  plays,  and  the 

^3  Non-Cycle  Mystery  Plays,  pp.  xxxi-xxxii. 
^*Ibid.,  p.  xxxii.    Cf.  the  description  in  this  volume,  p. 
87. 


132      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

plays  at  Reading,  Shrewsbury  and  Edinburgh  ".^* 
Now  Mr.  Waterhouse's  trouble  comes  from  a 
failure  to  recognize  clearly  the  difference  between 
a  processional  stage  and  a  stationary  one;  for, 
while  the  underlying  principle  of  the  two  kinds  of 
staging  was  the  same,  the  viewpoint  and  the  stages 
themselves  were  very  different.  He  failed  to 
notice,  however,  that  if  a  pageant-car  were  used 
and  the  play  given  at  a  definite  station  on  a  street 
corner,  the  action  must  necessarily  be  the  same 
as  if  the  wagon  were  taken  to  a  play-field  and 
the  scene  presented  from  the  same  stage  there. 
The  only  difference  was  that  the  crowd  could  be 
shut  off  and  admission  prices  charged  in  the  one 
case,  whereas  in  the  other,  on  the  street  corner,  this 
could  not  be  done. 

Simultaneous  Scenery.  In  the  following  pages 
of  this  chapter,  then,  the  plan  will  be  to  cite  in 
detail  evidence  from  the  plays  of  Wakefield,  Nor- 
wich, Coventry,  and  other  cycles  of  processional 
plays  and  to  show  that  the  presentation  of  these 
plays  cannot  be  explained  on  any  other  principle 
than  that  of  simultaneous  scenery,  with  the 
pageant-car  as  a  stage  rather  than  as  a  sedes.  The 
term  "  simultaneous  scenery  ",  too,  will  be  used  to 
mean  the  presence  on  the  pageant-stage  of  two 
distinct  and  separately  located  scenes,  both  of 
which  are  visible  and  present  to  the  audience  at 
the  same  time.     And  by  "  multiple  representation  " 

^^  Non-Cycle  Mystery  Plays,  pp.  xxxi-xxxii. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING       133 

will  be  meant  the  simultaneous  presence  on  the 
stage  of  actors  in  simultaneously  decorated  scenes 
that  are  supposed  to  be  more  or  less  distant  from 
each  other. 

Pageant  Large  Enough.  First  of  all,  it  must 
be  recognized  that  the  regular  pageant  stages,  with 
the  help  of  the  street  in  some  exceptional  cases, 
were  large  enough  to  present  any  of  the  plays  that 
have  come  down  to  us.  We  have  heard  always 
that  the  pageant-cars  were  big  and  spacious,  and 
Archdeacon  Rogers's,  or  his  son's,  statement  that 
the  carriages  "  stoode  vpon  6  wheeles  "  would  in- 
dicate that  they  must  have  been  very  large,  so  large 
that  an  extra  pair  of  wheels  was  needed  to  support 
the  weight  of  the  wagon  in  the  center.  To  this 
may  be  added  the  evidence,  slight  though  it  be,  of 
the  "  parcel  of  land  in  Mill  Lane ",  Coventry, 
"  30j^  feet  wide  and  yoy^  long ",  on  which  the 
weavers'  pageant-house  was  erected.  Such  evi- 
dence, it  is  true,  can  be  regarded  only  as  negative, 
but  it  is  worth  noting  that  a  space  of  ground  of 
this  size  would  offer  ample  room  for  a  pageant- 
wagon  large  enough  to  stage  any  of  the  cyclic 
plays. 

"  Sedes  "  on  the  Stages.  In  the  second  place,  at- 
tention should  be  called  to  the  fact  that  we  have 
positive  evidence  of  sedes  on  the  Corpus  Christi 
stages.  Sharp  prints  the  following  record  of 
boards  bought  for  the  angels'  sedes  ("pulpits" 
they  are  called  here)  in  the  Coventry  drapers'  play 
of  Doomsday: 


\ 


134     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

1565. — payd    for   iiij    yards   of   boorde   to   make 

pulpytts    for   the   angells viijd 

payd   for  a  pece  of  wode  to  make  feete 

for  them iiijd 

payd    to    the    carpenters    for    makyng   ij 

pulpytts    &c iiij  si® 

Too  much  stress  cannot  be  laid  on  this  entry;  for 
we  have  here  a  definite  reference  to  the  two 
separate  sedes  for  the  good  and  the  bad  angels  at 
Doomsday.  "  iiij  yards  of  boorde  "  could  not  have 
made  scaffolds  for  these  angels;  therefore  we  may 
suppose  that  this  lumber  must  have  been  meant  for 
the  regular  pageant  sedes. 

Coventry  "  Purification  ".  The  Coventry  Puri- 
fication of  Mary  also  furnishes  indisputable  evi- 
dence of  the  use  of  both  raised  sedes  and  simul- 
taneous scenery  in  its  presentation.  As  there  is 
nothing  in  the  first  part  of  the  play  that  necessitates 
the  use  of  sedes,  we  may  pass  over  that  and  take  up 
the  action  at  the  point  where  Simeon  goes  from 
his  home  to  that  of  his  clerks,  to  inform  them  of 
the  coming  of  Christ.  In  the  course  of  the  conver- 
sation which  ensues  at  the  clerks'  sedes,  Simeon 
and  one  of  the  clerks  make  the  following  remarks 
about  decorating  the  temple  for  the  visit  of  Christ : 

Clarecus.    Then  hast  we  this  alter  to  araye 
And  clothis  off  onowre  theron  to  laye 
Ande  the  grownde  straw  we  with  flowris  gay 
Thatt  of  oddur  swetely  smellis. 

"^^  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  71, 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING        135 

Semeon.    And   when   he  aprochis   nere   this 

place, 
Syng  then  with  me  thatt  conyng  hasse 
And  the  othur  the  meyne  space 

for  joie  rynge  ye  the  belHs. — 11.    359-66. 

There  Semeon  and  his  Clarks  gothe  vp  to  the  tempull 
and  Gaberell  cumyth  to  the  tempull  dore  and  seyth  [that 
Mary  must  come  now  and  make  her  offering,] 

Here  we  have  Simeon  and  his  clerk  referring  to 
the  altar  as  if  it  were  plainly  visible  and  im- 
mediately at  hand  ("  this  alter ",  "  when  he 
aprochis  nere  this  place"),  whereas  they  are  both 
supposedly  some  distance  away  and  ought  not  to  be 
able  to  see  the  altar  inside  the  temple.  And  that 
the  temple  and  altar — they  are  both  spoken  of  as 
one  and  the  same  thing — are  on  a  raised  sedes,  is 
evidenced  by  the  fact  that  "Semeon  and  his 
Clarks  gothe  vp  to  the  tempull ".  If  the  temple 
were  on  the  pageant- wagon  and  the  clerks'  locus 
on  a  scaffold  across  the  street,  as  Mr.  Albright 
would  have  us  believe,  the  direction  would  be 
"  gothe  over  ",  not  "  gothe  vp  ". 

But  there  are  still  other  references  to  the  eleva- 
tion of  this  sedes  above  the  rest  of  the  stage. 
When  Joseph  and  Mary  approach  the  temple,  the 
direction  reads:  Here  the  [Simeon  and  his  clerks] 
cum  downe  with  presession  to  mete  them.  And 
other  stage-directions  are:  There  Mare  and 
Josoff  de partis  owt  of  the  vpper  parte  of  the 
pagand  (after  1.  704)  ;  There  the  all  goo  vp  to  the 


136      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

awter  and  lesus  before  (after  1.  805) ;  There  the 
goo  done  into  the  for  pagond  and  lesus  steylyth 
awey  (after  1.  814).  Likewise  the  speech  of 
Mary  after  1.  1028  shows  the  elevation  of  the 
temple  sedes: — 

[Mary.]     See,    husebond,    where    he    syttyth 

aloft 
Amonge  yondur  masturs  soo  moche  off  myght. 

— 11.    1029-30. 

The  definiteness  of  these  references  led  Sharp 
to  the  following  conclusions :  "  The  preceding  di- 
rections, and  extract  from  Mary's  speech  to  her 
husband,  evidently  show  that  there  were  two  floors 
or  stages  in  the  Pageant  vehicle,  one  somewhat 
higher  than  the  other,  and  representing  an  interior 
view  of  the  Temple,  as  it  should  seem,  and  whereon 
a  considerable  portion  of  the  play  was  performed. 
It  must  not,  however,  be  understood  that  one  of 
these  floors  was  above,  i.  e.  over  the  other,  but  that 
when  the  scene  lay  in  the  Temple,  the  performers 
ascended  by  one  or  more  steps  to  the  back  division 
of  the  stage,  which  .  .  .  was  probably  fitted  up  so 
as  to  favour  this  supposed  change  of  place  ".^^ 

Another  reference  to  the  raised  sedes  on  the 
stage  is  to  be  found  in  the  Towneley  Caesar  Au- 
gustus, where,  when  Sirinus  comes  to  visit  Caesar, 
the  latter  says: — 

1^  iVeavers'  Pageant,  p.  14. 


CORPUS    CHRISTI   STAGING        137 

Imperator.     Welcom,  sir  syrynne,  to  this  hall, 
Besyde  my  self  here  sytt  thou  shall, 
Come  vp  belyf  to  me. — 11.  154-6. 

And  the  "  selldall  for  god "  mentioned  in  the 
Coventry  smiths'  accounts  for  1560,^®  although 
Sharp  thought  it  "  perhaps  the  settle  or  seat  on 
which  Christ  was  placed  in  mock  dignity,  in  the 
interval  between  his  condemnation  and  cruci- 
fixion ",  may  have  been  a  special  sedes  for  Christ. 

Crucifixion  Scenes.  And,  finally,  attention 
may  be  called  to  the  fact  that  crucifixion  scenes 
were  customarily  represented  on  a  raised  sedes. 
In  the  York  shearmen's  Christ  Led  up  to  Calvary 
John  and  Maria  Sancta  go  up  to  Calvary,  but  are 
run  "  doune  pe  hill "  by  the  soldiers.^®  Likewise 
in  the  butchers'  Death  and  Burial  of  Christ  we  find 
Pilate  going  to  visit  the  body  of  the  crucified  Christ 
and  referring  to  him  on  "  gone  hill  ".  And  the 
robber  crucified  on  Christ's  left  asks  him. 

If  pou  be  Goddis  sone  so  free. 

Why  hyng  pou  pus  on  pis  hille? — 11.  196-7. 

In  the  Chester  Passion  Christ  is  led  versus  montem 
Calvariae;  and  in  the  ironmongers'  Crucifixion, 
when  Symon  of  Syrrye  is  found  on  the  way  to 
Calvary,  he  is  bidden  to  come 

18  Sharp,  Coventry  Mysteries,  pp.  26-7. 
i»  Smith,  York  Plays,  p.  344,  1.  210. 


138     CORPUS   CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

And  take  this  crosse  anon  in  hye, 
Unto  the  mounte  of  Calverye.^^ 

These  crucifixion  scenes  probably  were  trebly 
influenced  in  being  thus  placed  on  a  raised  locus 
always.  The  convention  of  elevated  sedes,  as 
Chambers  has  shown,  had  been  inherited  from  the 
church  liturgical  plays,  in  which  the  crucifix  cus- 
tomarily stood  above  the  altar.  But,  in  addition  to 
this  influence,  the  Englishmen  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, almost  all  of  whom  were  Catholic,  were  ac- 
customed to  seeing  the  crucifix  regularly  in  an 
exalted  place  above  the  high  altar  of  the  church. 
And,  finally,  when  we  remember  the  common  tradi- 
tion that  the  crucifixion  took  place  on  a  hill,  it 
seems  reasonable  to  suppose  that  this  treble  influ- 
ence must  have  had  its  weight  in  putting  the  cruci- 
fixion -scenes  on  raised  sedes  in  the  pageant-wagons. 

Thus  we  have  found  what  seems  incontrovert- 
ible evidence  of  the  use  of  individual,  raised  sedes 
on  the  Corpus  Christi  stages  and,  hence,  evidence 
that  the  wagons  were  regarded  as  stages  rather 
than  as  separate  sedes.  Our  evidence  so  far,  how- 
ever, does  not  prove  that  simultaneous  representa- 
tion was  used.  It  remains  now,  therefore,  to 
prove,  not  only  that  individual  sedes  were  used  on 
the  Corpus  Christi  wagons,  but  that  two  or  more 

20 Wright,  Chester  Plays,  ii.  51.  The  phrase,  "in  hye" 
(in  haste),  of  course  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  point  in 
question. 


CORPUS    CHRISTI    STAGING        139 

of  these  sedes  were  to  be  found  decorated  and 
visible  on  one  pageant-wagon  at  the  same  time. 

York  "  Purification  of  Mary  ".  Let  us  look  first 
at  the  York  Purification  of  Mary,  where  two  sedes, 
one  for  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  and  one  for 
Joseph's  house  at  Bethlehem,  were  so  close  together 
on  the  same  stage  as  to  cause  actual  confusion  in 
the  MS.  The  play  opens  with  the  Prisbeter  in  the 
temple  at  Jerusalem  telling  us  that  he  is  there  to 
receive  all  offerings  brought  into  the  temple. 
Anna,  too,  abides  in  the  temple  day  and  night,  and 
she  prophesies  that  Christ  will  soon  be  brought  into 
the  temple.  The  scene  then  shifts  to  Simeon's 
house  in  Jerusalem,  where  the  old  man  is  bewailing 
his  age  and  feebleness  and  praying  God  that  he 
may  see  the  Christ  before  he  dies.  At  this  point 
an  angel  enters  and  promises  him  that  he  shall  see 
Jesus.  Then  the  scene  shifts  to  the  house  of  Mary 
and  Joseph  at  Bethlehem,  beginning  as  follows : 

Mary.    Joseph,  my  husbonde  and  my  feer, 
Ye  take  to  me  grathely  entent, 
I  wyll  you  showe  in  this  manere, 
What  I  wyll  do,  thus  haue  I  ment. 
Full  xl  days  is  comme  and  went 
Sens  that  my  babb  Jesu  was  borne, 
Therefore  I  wolde  he  were  present, 
As  Moyses  lawes  sais  hus  beforne. 
Here  in  this  temple  before  Goddes  sight. — 

11.  187-95. 


140      CORPUS   CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

After  some  debate  and  hesitation  they  decide  to 
go,  and  at  line  270,  to  show  that  they  have  not  yet 
started,  we  find: — 

Mar.    Joseph,  my  spowse,  ye  say  full  trewe, 
Than  lett  vs  dresse  hus  furth  our  way. 

To  which  Joseph  replies : 

Jos.    Go  we  than  Mary,  and  do  oure  dewe. 
And  make  meekly  offerand  this  day. 

11.  272-3. 

But  immediately  in  the  next  line,  he  says,  "  Lo, 
here  is  the  temple  ",  etc.;  and  they  enter  and  offer 
their  two  doves.  Then  the  scene  changes  again 
and  shows  us  Simeon's  house,  or  sedes,  with  an 
angel  bidding  him  get  ready  and  come  to  the 
temple,  where  he  shall  see  Christ ;  and  he  goes  and 
receives  the  child. 

According  to  Mr.  Albright's  theory,  the  temple 
in  this  scene  must  have  been  on  one  stage,  probably 
the  pageant-wagon  because  that  was  certainly 
propertied,  while  Simeon's  and  Joseph's  houses 
must  have  been  represented  by  separate  scaffolds 
"  at  a  distance  of  fifty  to  seventy-five  feet  from 
the  main  carriage  ".^^  But  this  theory  is  proved  to 
be  absolutely  untenable  by  line  195,  where  Mary, 
while  still  in  her  house  in  Bethlehem,  refers  to  the 

21  Albright,  Shaksperian  Stage,  p.  27. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING        141 

temple  in  Jerusalem  as  "  Here  in  this  temple  before 
Goddes  sight ".  Miss  L.  T.  Smith  observed  this 
incongruity  in  the  staging  and  characterized  it  as 
"  probably  a  slip  due  to  the  fact  that  Bethlehem 
and  the  temple  were  near  together  on  the  stage  'V' 
which  must  have  been  the  case.  For,  in  addition 
to  the  indication  in  Mary's  speech  that  the  temple 
is  "  here  ",  immediately  on  their  leaving  their  home 
in  Bethlehem  we  find  them  at  the  temple  and  pre- 
paring to  enter,  thus  showing  that  the  two  sedes 
must  have  been  immediately  adjacent  to  each  other 
on  the  same  stage.  Certainly  Mr.  Albright's 
theory  of  a  distance  of  fifty  or  seventy-five  feet 
cannot  be  held  for  a  moment ;  for  they  could  never 
have  left  one  stage,  walked  a  distance  of  twenty 
yards  or  more,  and  yet  have  confused  the  two 
sedes  with  each  other. 

Likewise,  it  cannot  be  doubted  for  a  moment  that 
the  scenes  in  this  play  of  the  Purification  of  Mary 
were  decorated  and  represented  simultaneously. 
One  instance  only  will  suffice.  When  Joseph  and 
Mary  have  entered  the  4:emple,  offered  their  doves, 
and  Anna  has  welcomed  the  blessed  babe  "  here 
in  this  hall ",  she  suddenly  breaks  off  in  her  speech 
of  welcome  and  the  action  begins  in  Simeon's  house 
with  the  angel  bidding  Simeon  come  to  the  temple 
to  see  Jesus.  Here,  then,  we  have  two  simul- 
taneous scenes,  the  angel  and  Simeon  at  one  sedes 
and  the   Prisbeter,  Joseph,   Mary,  and  Jesus  at 

22  York  Plays,  p.  439  n. 


142     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

(/another;  and  the  temple  scene  has  to  wait  till 
j  I  Simeon  can  get  there  to  hail  the  babe  and  the 
I  mother. 

York  "  Adoration  ".  The  York  Adoration  begins 
with  the  three  Magi  meeting  on  their  way  to 
Bethlehem.  Jerusalem  comes  first  in  their  journey, 
however ;  so  they  decide  to  stop  at  Herod's  court  in 
Jerusalem  to  get  his  permission  to  pass  through 
the  land.  The  three  kings  are  here  dropped  in  the 
midst  of  their  journey  and  the  scene  shifts  to 
Herod's  seat,  where  a  nuntius  announces  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Magi  in  the  land  and  their  coming  to 
the  court.    At  this  Herod  exclaims : 

Herod.    Haue  done;  dresse  vs  in  riche  array, 
And  ilke  man  make  tham  mery  chere. — 

11.  91-2. 

The  Magi  now  arrive  and  beg  Herod's  permission 
to  seek  the  Christ.  He  at  first  refuses,  but  on  the 
advice  of  one  of  his  counsellors  changes  his  mind 
and  decides  to  let  them  go,  but  with  the  promise 
that  they  will  report  to  him  when  they  have  found 
Jesus,  he  thinking  that  he  himself  may  thus  find 
out  the  Christ  and  put  him  to  death.  Then  Herod 
says: 

Sir  kyngis,  I  halde  me  paide 

Of  all  youre  purpose  playne. 

Wendis  furth,  youre  forward  to  fulfill, 

To  Bedlem,  it  is  but  here  at  hande. — 11.  191 -4. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING       143 

Herod,  let  it  be  noted,  is  in  Jerusalem  at  his  court, 
and  yet  he  speaks  of  Bethlehem  as  "  here  at  hande  ", 
— not  over  yonder  on  the  other  platform,  but  here 
on  the  other  end  of  this  stage.  Then  the  three 
kings  depart  and  Herod  begins  rejoicing  over  the 
trap  he  has  laid,  concluding  his  speech  as  follows : 

Go  we  nowe,  till  pei  come  agayne, 

To  playe  vs  in  som  othir  place. 

This  halde  I  gud  counsaill, 

Yitt  wolde  I  no  man  wist; 

For  sertis,  we  shall  not  faill 

To  loyse  pam  as  vs  list. — 11.  211-16. 

Then  occurs  the  direction:  " Nota,  the  Harrod 
passeth,  and  the  iij  kynges  comyth  agayn  to  make 
there  offerynges  ".  Accordingly  they  enter,  ex- 
claiming that  they  have  lost  their  sign,  the  star; 
but  on  finding  it  immediately,  they  go  to  the  other 
end  of  the  stage  and  make  their  offerings  to  the 
child  in  the  manger.  Then  the  scene  closes  with 
an  angel  warning  them  to  go  home  by  another  route 
and  not  to  see  Herod  any  more. 

The  point  of  chief  interest  to  us  about  this  scene 
is  that  Herod's  court  in  Jerusalem  and  the  stable  in 
Bethlehem  must  both  have  been  on  the  same  stage 
and  visible  at  the  same  time.  Why  else  should  it 
be  necessary  for  Herod  to  retire  before  the  three 
kings  enter  again  ?  That  Jerusalem  and  Bethlehem 
were  both  on  the  same  stage  is  shown  both  by  the 


144     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

fact  that  Herod  retires  before  the  three  kings  come 
again  and  by  Herod's  reference  to  Bethlehem  as 
"  here  at  hande " ;  and  that  they  were  presented 
simultaneously  must  be  admitted  from  the  speech 
of  the  first  king: — 

i  Rex.     Sir,  of  felashippe  are  we  fayne, 
Now  sail  we  wende  forth  all  in  feere, 
God  graunte  vs  or  we  come  agayne 
Som  gode  hartyng  per-of  to  here. 
Sir,  here  is  Jerusalem, 
To  wisse  vs  als  we  goo, 
And  be-yonde  is  Bedleem, 
per  schall  we  seke  alsoo. — 11  53-60. 

These  lines  indicate  clearly  three  places,  two  of 
them  simultaneously  decorated:  Jerusalem,  Beth- 
lehem, and  the  meeting-place  of  the  Magi.  The 
evidence,  however,  as  to  how  these  loca  were  repre- 
sented is  less  clear.  It  seems  probable  that  Beth- 
lehem was  a  house  in  which  were  Joseph,  Mary,  a 
maid,  and  the  child  in  a  manger.  This  much  may 
be  surmised  from  the  popular  conception  of  the 
scene,  as  well  as  from  the  speeches  of  the  maid  and 
the  three  kings  at  the  door  of  the  stable. — 

i  Rex.    A!  siris!  I  se  it  [the  star]  stande 
A-boven  where  he  is  borne, 
Lo !  here  is  pe  house  at  hande. 
We  haue  nojt  myste  pis  morne. 


CORPUS   CHRISTl   STAGING       145 
[Maid  comes  to  the  door.] 

Anc.    Whame  seke  ge  syrs,  be  wayes  wilde, 
With  talkyng,  trauelyng  to  and  froo? 
Her  wonnes  a  woman  with  her  childe, 
And  hir  husband;  her  ar  no  moo. — 11.  225-32. 

This  house  scene  would  be  unintelligible  without 
decorations  of  some  kind,  especially  since  the  Magi 
do  not  come  at  once  upon  the  holy  family,  but  meet 
the  maid  first,  probably  at  the  door  of  the  house. 

And  as  to  the  localization  of  the  Jerusalem,  or 
Herod,  sedcs,  there  is  even  less  definite  evidence; 
but  we  may  suppose  that  at  least  a  throne  for 
Herod  was  used  and  that  this  was  placed  between 
the  Bethlehem  locus  and  the  platea  where  the  three 
kings  come  together;  for  the  first  king  when  they 
meet  speaks  of  Jerusalem  as  "  here "  and  Beth- 
lehem "  be-yonde  ".  This  would  locate  the  platea 
at  one  end,  Herod's  throne  in  the  middle,  and 
Joseph's  stable  at  the  other  end  of  the  wagon. 

There  is  another  question  raised  by  this  play: 
Were  the  holy  family  and  Herod  and  his  followers 
on  the  stage  from  the  beginning?  If  they  were, 
the  matter  of  simultaneous  scenery  is  settled  at 
once;  and  it  seems  more  than  probable  that  they 
were;  for  no  mention  of  an  entrance  is  made  any- 
where— none  is  needed  after  the  beginning  of  the 
play,  provided  they  were  all  already  in  their  seats, 
— and    the   only   exit   made    is   that   of    Herod. 


146     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

Herod's  exit  is  entirely  understandable,  however, 
since  he  has  no  further  part  in  the  play  and  since 
the  three  kings  must  pass  by  his  sedes,  even  if  they 
go  home  "  be  other  waies  ".  And  since,  too,  his 
exit  is  noted  in  the  directions,  it  is  entirely  con- 
sistent vi^ith  his  having  been  on  the  stage  from  the 
beginning  of  the  scene. 

Entrances  and  Exits.  And  while  we  are  on 
the  subject  of  exits,  mention  may  be  made  of  the 
system  of  entrances  and  exits  in  the  Coventry 
shearmen  and  tailors'  play.  Some  of  the  stage- 
directions  are  as  follows:  Here  the  angell  de- 
partyth,  and  Joseff  cumyth  in  (after  1.  99)  ;  There 
the  scheppardis  syngith  ageyne  and  goth  fori  he  of 
the  place;  and  the  ij  profettis  cumyth  in  (after  1. 
331);  There  the  profettis  gothe  furthe  and  Erod 
cumyth  in,  and  the  messenger  (after  1.  474)  ;  Here 
Erod  goth  awey  and  the  iij  kyngis  speykyth  in  the 
strete  (after  1.  539)  ;  Here  Erode  cumyth  in  ageyne 
(after  1.  602) ;  etc.  The  question  may  be  legiti- 
mately asked  again  here:  If  Mr.  Albright's 
adopted  theory  is  correct  and  there  were  extra 
stages  and  scaffolds  for  the  representation  of  the 
scenes,  why  should  entrances  and  exits  be  found 
necessary  ?  The  answer  plainly  is  not  to  be  found 
in  such  a  theory  as  that  advanced  by  Mr.  Albright. 
On  the  contrary,  the  answer  is  to  be  found  only  in 
the  fact  that  there  was  a  single  pageant-stage, 
which  the  dramatists  found  too  small  to  contain  all 
the  sedes  necessary  for  a  proper  representation  of 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING       147 

their  plays.  The  result  was  that  they  were  com- 
pelled to  remove  the  actors  from  their  limited 
stage,  in  order  to  present  adequately  this  play  of 
the  annunciation,  the  visit  to  Elizabeth,  Joseph's 
trouble  about  Mary,  the  nativity,  etc. 

Chester  "  Entry  into  Jerusalem  ".  But  our  evi- 
dence does  not  stop  here.  The  Chester  cycle  has 
many  indications  o!  simultaneous  scenery  and  of 
the  pageant-wagon  as  a  stage  rather  than  as  a 
sedes.  The  fourteenth  play,  Christ's  Entry  into 
Jerusalem,  begins  with  Christ  telling  his  disciples 
that  they  will  go  to  Bethany,  whither  they  have 
been  invited  by  Simon  the  Leper.  Peter  and 
Philip  reply,  and  then  comes  the  stage-direction: 
Tunc  ibunt  versus  domum  Simonis  Leprosi. 
Simon,  Lazarus,  and  Martha  welcome  Christ  and 
Tunc  Jesus  sedehit,  et  omnes  cum  eo,  et  veniet 
Maria  Magdelena,  cum  albastro  unguenti,  et 
lamentando  die  at  Maria  Magdelena.  Mary  washes 
the  feet  of  her  Lord,  Judas  objects  to  the  waste  of 
the  ointment,  and  Tunc  surget  Jesu,  et  stando  dicat 
discipulis  suis  ut  sequitur. 

Jesus. 

Petter  and  Phillipe,  my  brethren  free 
Before  you  a  castill  you  maie  see: 
Goe  you  theider,  and  feche  anon  to  me 
An  asse  and  her  fole  also.  .  .  . 
Tunc    ibunt    in    civitatem,    et    dicat    primuz 
janitor. 


148     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

Peter  and  Philip  get  the  donkey  and  return  to 
Jesus,  and  the  Janitor  announces  the  coming  of 
Christ  to  the  citizens,  who  go  to  meet  him,  singing 
"  Hosanna ",  etc.  Tunc  Jesus  equitabit  versus 
civitatem,  et  omnes  cives  pannos  suos  in  via  pro- 
sternent,  et  cum  venerit  ad  templum  descendens  de 
asina  dicat  vendentibus  cum  flagello: 

Doe  awaye,  and  use  not  this  thinge, 
For  it  is  not  my  likinge ; 
You  make  my  fathers  dwellinge 
A  place  of  merchandise. 

Primus  marcator. 

What  frecke  is  this  that  makes  fare. 
And  casteth  downe  all  our  ware? 
Come  no  man  heither  full  yare, 
That  did  us  suche  anoye. 

Secundus  marcator, 

Owte !  out  I  woes  me ! 
My  table  with  my  moneye 
Is  spread  abrode. 

The  rest  of  the  play  does  not  serve  our  present 
purpose,  but  this  much  is  sufficient  to  show  the  use 
of  simultaneous  scenery  on  the  pageant-stage. 
And  it  shows  itself,  too,  in  direct  contradiction  to 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING       149 

Mr.  Albright's  theory  of  one  propertied  locus  and 
all  the  others  bare ;  for  in  this  play  two  of  the  sedes 
were  certainly  propertied.  The  house  of  Simon, 
for  instance,  had  seats  for  Jesus  and  his  disciples 
and  must  therefore  have  been  a  permanently  dec- 
orated sedes.  Likewise,  the  temple  must  have  been 
propertied;  for  the  first  seller  speaks  of  having  all 
his  "  ware  "  cast  down,  and  the  second  seller  refers 
to  the  table  on  which  his  money  was  spread.  Fur- 
thermore, the  temple  as  a  whole  must  have  been 
indicated  by  a  definite  enclosure  from  which  the 
sellers  could  be  driven.  In  fact,  it  would  be  dififi- 
cult  to  find  a  play  showing  clearer  evidence  of  the 
necessity  of  simultaneous  scenery,  or  one  more 
directly  in  opposition  to  Mr.  Albright's  theory. 

The  Chester  "Passion".  The  evidence  for 
simultaneous  scenery  in  the  Chester  Passion  is  de- 
finite and  clear,  although  Mr.  Albright  has  included 
this  play  among  those  which  he  thinks  would 
illustrate  his  theory.    Of  this  scene  he  says : 

Chester,  Passion  of  Christ.  Christ  is  sent  from  the 
Bishops  (one  scaffold)  to  Pilate  (on  the  pageant  wagon, 
because  most  of  the  action  takes  place  there),  who  in  turn 
sends  him  to  Herod  (another  scaffold).  He  is  soon  re- 
turned to  Pilate  (pageant),  where  the  trial,  final  judg- 
ment, and  long  scenes  of  torture  follow.^s 

On  the  contrary,  all  the  actual  evidence  as  to  the 
staging  of  this  pageant  is  opposed  to  Mr.  Albright's 
view,  as  is  clear  from  an  analysis  of  the  play. 
^^  Shakes  per  ian  Stage,  p.  28. 


150      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

The  scene  opens  with  Christ  and  the  Jews  at  the 
hall  of  Annas  and  Caiaphas,  where  Christ  is  accused 
and  tortured.  The  stage-direction  states:  Tunc 
Judei  statuent  Jesum  in  cathedram;  et  dicat  tor- 
quendo  Primus  Judeus.  Christ  is  next  led  to 
Pilate's  hall  {Tunc  Cayphas  et  Annas  et  Judei  ad- 
ducant  Jesum  ad  Py latum)  ;  then  to  Herod  {ad 
Herodem)  ;  and  finally  back  to  Pilate  {ad  Pilatum), 
where  he  is  despoiled  of  his  clothing  and  tied  to  a 
column  {Tunc  spoliabunt  ipsum  et  ligabunt  ad 
columnam) . 

These  stage-directions  point  clearly  to  three  dif- 
ferent sedes  in  this  play,  the  halls  of  Annas  and 
Caiaphas,  Pilate,  and  Herod.  It  would  seem  prob- 
able that  these  places  were  represented  by  chairs, 
or  thrones,  or  some  such  property  as  would  fittingly 
symbolize  the  rank  and  dignity  of  the  rulers.  It  is 
certain,  however,  that  Annas  and  Caiaphas's  and 
Pilate's  sedes  must  have  been  decorated  and  visible 
at  the  same  time;  for  Christ  is  made  to  sit  in  a 
chair  {in  cathedram)  at  the  Annas-and-Caiaphas 
sedes  and  is  bound  to  a  column  of  some  kind  {ad 
columnam)  at  Pilate's.  And  since  Pilate  had  to 
remain  in  his  seat,  in  order  to  be  there  when  the 
Jews  and  Christ  returned  from  Herod,  it  cannot  be 
doubted  that  the  play  was  multiple  and  simulta- 
neous in  both  scenery  and  representation. 

The  Chester  "Ascension".  Play  XXI  of  the 
Chester  cycle  presents  the  Ascension  and  affords 
clear  evidence  of  the  simultaneous  representation 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING        151 

of  two  propertied  scenes.  The  play  begins  with  a 
speech  by  Christ : — 

My  brethren  that  sitten  in  companye. 
With  peace  I  greete  you  hartelye. — 11.  1-2. 

Christ  eats  with  his  disciples  later  at  this  sedes 
(comedit  Jesus  cum  discipulis  suis),  and  we  may 
believe  that  he,  too,  sits  with  them,  probably  about 
a  table.  Then,  after  the  meal  is  finished,  the  stage- 
direction  reads:  Tunc  adducit  discipulos  in  Beth- 
aniam,  et  cum  pervenerit  ad  locum  ascendens  dicat 
Jesus,  stans  in  loco  ubi  ascendit.  Data  est  michi 
omnis  potestas  in  celo  et  in  terra.  From  here  he 
ascends  into  heaven,  but  while  in  mid-air  he  stops 
and  speaks  to  his  disciples:  Cum  autem  imple- 
verit  Jesus  canticum,  stet  in  medio  quasi  supra 
nubes.  .  .  .  Jesus  autem  pausans  eodem  loco  dicat. 

This  outline  and  these  directions  afford  con- 
clusive proof  of  the  multiple  representation  of  two 
propertied  scenes.  In  the  first  scene  a  table  and 
some  chairs  must  certainly  have  been  present;  and 
in  the  second  some  device,  probably  a  windlass,^* 
was  used,  so  that  Christ  could  ascend  to  heaven 
and  yet  stop  midway  {supra  nubes)  for  a  final  ex- 
hortation to  his  disciples.  And  since  both  the 
sedes  were  furnished  with  permanent  properties, 
the  play  was  multiple  throughout. 

Towneley    Cycle.     A    sufficient    number    of 

2*  Cf.  Sharp,  Coventry  Mysteries,  pp.  47  and  72. 


152      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

examples  has  probably  been  given  already  to  prove 
conclusively  that  more  than  one  simultaneous,  dec- 
orated scene  v^as  to  be  found  on  a  single  Corpus 
Christi  stage  and  that  the  pageant- wagon  was  itself 
the  whole  stage.  But  for  the  sake  of  showing  the 
uniform  principles  of  representation  in  all  the 
cycles  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  Towneley 
series  as  well. 

Towneley  "  Creation  '* .  The  Towneley  Creation 
begins  with  the  narration  and  symbolical  represen- 
tation by  God  of  the  events  of  the  first  five  days  of 
the  world.  At  the  end  of  the  fifth  day  God  halts 
in  his  narration  sufficiently  to  allow  the  Cherubyn 
to  praise  him  at  length  for  his  wondrous  works. 
Then  occurs  the  stage-direction :  hie  deus  recedit  a 
suo  solio  &  lucifer  sedebit  in  eodem  solio.  Next 
follow  Lucifer's  growing  pride  and  ambition  and 
the  overthrow  of  him  and  his  hosts  into  hell. 
Then,  after  their  fall,  the  first  angel  exclaims : 

Alas,  alas,  and  wele-wo! 
lucifer,  whi  fell  thou  so? 
We,  that  were  angels  so  fare, 
and  sat  so  hie  aboue  the  ayere. 
Now  ar  we  waxen  blak  as  any  coyll. 

—11.  132-6. 

God  now  proceeds  to  the  creation  of  man,  which 
he  accomplishes  by  the  mere  act  of  touching 
him. — 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING       153 

[Deus.]  now  make  we  man  to  oure  liknes, 
that  shall  be  keper  of  more  &  les, 

of  fowles,  and  fysh  in  flood.     Et  tanget  eutn. 
spreyte  of  life  I  in  the  blaw, 
good  and  ill  both  shall  thou  knaw ; 

rise  vp,  and  stand  bi  me. — 11.  165-70. 

Then  God  creates  woman  and  decides  to  put  the 
pair  into  paradise.  So  he  says  to  his  angel,  who 
has  not  been  concerned  in  the  action  involving  the 
creation  of  man  and  woman : 

[Deus.]  Ryse  vp,  myn  angell  cherubyn, 
Take  and  leyd  theym  both  in, 

And  leyf  them  there  in  peasse. — 11.   195-7. 
Tunc  capit  cherubyn  adam  per  manum,  etc. 

The  man  and  the  woman  are  then  led  into  paradise 
and  the  play  ends  with  a  hell-scene  which  explains 
that  man  was  made  to  take  the  place  of  the  fallen 
angels. 

This  play  has  been  cited  because  of  the  passage 
showing  the  custom  of  the  actors  remaining  on  the 
stage  when  not  in  action,  as  well  as  for  its  evi- 
dence of  the  use  of  multiple  scenery.  When  God 
has  need  of  the  angel,  there  is  no  direction,  "  Enter 
Angel ",  thereby  indicating  that  the  actor  has  been 
off  the  stage ;  but  God  commands,  "  Ryse  vp,  myn 
angell  cherubyn  ",  showing  that  the  character  has 
been  sitting  in  his  locus  waiting  for  his  time  to  play. 


154     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

From  this  play  we  may  see  also  that  multiple  dec- 
oration must  have  been  used  on  the  Wakefield 
stage.  Hell  was  represented;  the  angel  had  a 
locus;  God  had  a  throne  into  which  Lucifer  climbed 
while  the  Father  was  away;  and  Paradise  was  at 
least  decorated  with  a  tree  and  some  sort  of  en- 
closure from  which  the  man  and  woman  might  be 
driven.  The  whole  is  a  clear  example  of  the  use 
of  multiple  decorations. 

The  Towneley  "  Conspiracy  ".  One  other  scene 
from  this  cycle  will  suffice.  The  Conspiracy  is  a 
long  play  including  the  Last  Supper,  the  agony 
in  the  garden  of  Gethsemane,  and  the  betrayal  of 
Christ.  It  begins  in  Pilate's  hall,  where  Judas 
enters  and  bargains  to  betray  his  master.  Then 
Pilate  says : 

Pilatus.    we  shall  hym  haue,  and  that  in  hy, 

ffull  hastely  here  in  this  hall. 
Sir  knyghtys,  that  ar  of  dede  dughty, 

stynt  neuer  in  stede  ne  stall, 
Bot  looke  ye  bryng  hym  hastely, 

that  fatur  fals,  what  so  befall. — 11.  306-11. 

Then  the  action  at  this  sedes,  Pilate's  hall,  ceases, 
and  Pilate  and  his  group  remain  silent  for  a  space 
of  about  two  hundred  lines.  The  question  im- 
mediately arises:  Do  they  remain  in  their  places, 
histrionically  invisible,  or  do  they  actually  leave  the 
stage?    We  have  found  in  the  play  just  discussed 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING       155 

that  the  actors  kept  their  seats,  and  we  shall  see 
later  in  this  volume  ^^  that  they  regularly  kept  their 
places  when  not  in  action.  Therefore  it  may  be 
supposed  with  a  reasonable  degree  of  certainty  that 
Pilate  and  his  men  merely  remained  silent  at  their 
sedes  while  the  action  was  going  on  at  the  other 
side  of  the  stage. 

At  1.  314  the  disciples  and  Christ  take  up  the 
action,  the  latter  bidding  John  and  Peter  go  into 
the  city,  where  they  will  meet  a  man  who  will  lend 
a  room  in  which  the  Passover  may  be  eaten.  John 
and  Peter  go  into  the  city,  meet  the  man,  and  he 
lends  them  a  chamber.  Then  occurs  the  direction : 
Tunc  parent  lohannes  &  petrus  mensam.  Here, 
then,  we  must  have  two  places  visible  at  the  same 
time,  the  place  where  Christ  and  his  disciples  are 
(probably  the  platea)  and  the  chamber  where  John 
and  Peter  are  (a  definitely  located  sedes),  even  if 
we  leave  out  of  account  the  probability  that  Pilate's 
hall,  either  with  or  without  its  actors,  is  still  visible 
to  the  audience. 

Then,  after  the  Passover  has  been  eaten  and  the 
disciples'  feet  have  been  washed,  Christ  says  to 
his  followers : 

Ryse  ye  vp,  ilkon, 

and  weynd  we  on  oure  way, 
As  fast  as  we  may  gone, 

to  olyuete,  to  pray. 

"  Cf.  pp.  160-67. 


156     CORPUS   CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

Peter,  laniys,  and  lohn, 

ryse  vp  and  folow  me! 
My  tyme  it  commys  anone ; 

Abyde  styll  here,  ye  thre. 
Say  youre  prayers  here  by-neth. — 11.  488-96, 

This  passage  indicates  a  third  located  sedes,  Mt. 
Olivet,  which  must  have  been  distinguished  by  an 
elevation  of  at  least  a  few  feet,  because  the  dis- 
ciples are  bidden  to  remain  "here  by-neth"  until 
Christ  returns. 

In  this  play,  then,  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  at 
least  three,  and  possibly  four,  places  were  distin- 
guished on  the  stage  at  one  time :  Pilate's  hall,  Mt. 
Olivet,  the  chamber  in  which  the  Passover  was 
eaten,  and  possibly  the  "  city "  as  distinguished 
from  the  chamber.  The  room  was  localized  cer- 
tainly by  a  table  and  chairs,  Pilate's  hall  perhaps  by 
a  throne,  and  Mt.  Olivet  by  an  elevation  of  a  few 
feet  above  the  rest  of  the  stage. 

Illustrations  Chosen  by  Mr.  Albright.  In  our 
argument,  however,  we  need  not  confine  ourselves 
to  plays  that  may  have  escaped  the  notice  of  those 
who  regard  the  pageant-wagon  as  a  sedes  rather 
than  as  a  stage.  Let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  the 
plays  which  Mr.  Albright  himself  has  chosen  to 
stage  according  to  his  theory,  remembering,  how- 
ever, that  he  has  no  basis  for  his  method  other  than 
a  mere  opinion — one  which  we  have  already  found 
to  be  without  foundation.     For  lack  of  space  only 


CORPUS   CHRISTI    STAGING        157 

two  of  these,  in  addition  to  the  Chester  Passion  al- 
ready discussed/®  will  be  taken  up,  but  the  hastiest 
adequate  study  possible  will  show  that  Mr.  Al- 
bright's view,  even  in  his  own  chosen  plays,  is  far 
less  probable  than  that  of  a  single  stage  for  each 
complete  scene. 

York  "  Angels  and  Shepherds  ".  One  of  those 
that  Mr.  Albright  mentions  is  the  York  Angels 
and  Shepherds,  the  staging  of  which  he  sketches 
as  follows: 

York,  The  Angels  and  the  Shepherds.  The  shepherds 
have  met  and  are  in  the  midst  of  a  discussion  (scaffold), 
when  the  star  appears  and  directs  them  to  the  place  where 
Christ  is  born  (pageant). ^^ 

But  there  is  another  and,  with  what  we  now  know 
of  Corpus  Christi  staging,  a  far  more  plausible 
view  of  the  method  of  presenting  this  play.  The 
scene  is  supposed  to  center  around  Bethlehem  and 
the  fields  near  by,  and  a  big  moveable  pageant- 
wagon  with  double  stages  is  used  to  represent  the 
whole.  The  upper  stage  is  heaven,  where  the 
angels  sit;  the  lower  one  is  Bethlehem  and  the 
fields  near  by.  The  part  of  the  lower  stage  repre- 
senting Bethlehem  is  decorated  to  represent  a  house 
or  stable,  in  which  an  old  man  with  a  long  white 
beard  sits  with  a  young  woman  and  a  child  in  a 
crib.     The  rest  of  the  stage  represents  the  fields 

2«  Cf.  pp.  149-50. 

27  Shaksperian  Stage,  p.  27. 


158      CORPUS    CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

outside  Bethlehem,  where  three  shepherds  are  walk- 
ing.   The  First  Shepherd  is  talking: — 

[i   Past.]      Oure    forme-fadres,    faythfull    in 

fere, 
Bothe  Osye  and  Isaye, 
Preued  pat  a  prins  with-outen  pere 
Shulde  descende  doune  in  a  lady, 
And  to  make  mankynde  clerly. 

To  leche  pam  pat  are  lorne. 
And  in  Bedlem  here-by 

Sail  pat  same  barne  be  borne. — 11.  5-12. 

The  Second  Shepherd  replies : 

a  Past.     Or  he  be  borne  in  burgh  hereby, 

Balaham,  brothir,  me  haue  herde  say, 

A  Sterne  shulde  schyne  and  signifie. 

With  light  full  lemes  like  any  day. — 11.  13-16. 

The  Third  Shepherd  speaks;  then  the  angels  in 
heaven  above  begin  singing,  and  a  star  is  hung  out 
from  the  top  of  the  stage.  The  shepherds  gaze  in 
wonder  at  the  vision  of  the  angels  and  at  the  star ; 
they  discuss  the  whole  and  attempt  to  imitate  the 
music;  and  then  they  go  into  the  house  and  adore 
the  child. 

It  is  very  noticeable  here  that  Bethlehem  is 
spoken  of  as  "  here-by  "  and  that,  after  the  vision 
of  the  angels  in  the  sky  at  line  36  of  the  play,  the 


CORPUS    CHRISTI    STAGING        159 

three  shepherds  discuss  the  music  and  the  angels 
and  their  prophecy  for  forty-five  lines,  but  they 
make  no  attempt  whatever  toward  going  to  Beth- 
lehem before  line  82 ;  and  yet  at  line  86,  in  the  time 
taken  to  repeat  four  lines,  they  are  there.  The 
whole  passage,  beginning  with  the  speech  of  the 
Third  Shepherd  at  line  79,  is  as  follows : 

Hi  Pas.  Hym  for  to  fynde  has  we  no  drede,  (79) 

I  sail  you  telle  a-chesonne  why, 

5one  Sterne  to  pat  lorde  sail  vs  lede. 

a  Pas.  5a !  J)ou  sais  soth,  go  we  for-thy     (82) 

hym  to  honnour. 
And  make  myrthe  and  melody, 

with  sange  to  seke  oure  savyour. 
Et  tunc  cantant. 
i  Pas.  Breder,  bees  all  blythe  and  glad,     (86) 
Here  is  the  burght  per  we  shulde  be. 

And  yet  this  is  one  of  the  plays  which  Mr.  Albright 
thinks  is  a  sure  indication  of  his  view  of  separate 
stages  for  each  scene ! 

The  Towneley  "  Purification  ".  The  Towneley 
Purification  is  another  play  that  Mr.  Albright  has 
chosen  to  illustrate  his  theory  of  Corpus  Christi 
staging.     Of  this  scene  he  says : 

Towneley,  Purification.  Simeon  praying  that  he  may 
see  the  Christ  and  die  (one  scaffold)  is  directed  to  the 
temple,  where  the  bells  are  ringing  (pageant).     Mary  and 


160      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

Joseph  (on  another  scaffold)  think  it  time  for  the  purifi- 
cation, and  start  for  the  temple.  There  (at  the  pageant) 
they  are  all  supposed  to  meet.28 

Mr.  Albright  has  given  a  correct,  brief  outline  of 
the  play,  but  there  is  no  evidence  whatever  for  his 
method  of  staging.  In  the  first  place,  the  play,  as 
we  have  it,  was  not  given  on  a  pageant-wagon,^^  a 
fact  which  Mr.  Albright  failed  to  notice,  but  on  a 
fixed  stage ;  and  the  present  writer  can  see  no  need 
whatever  for  requiring  three  separate  stages  for 
this  one  scene.  On  the  contrary,  Simeon  had  his 
sedes,  Joseph  and  Mary  theirs,  and  there  was  a 
separately  decorated  one  for  the  temple, — all  on  the 
same  stage.  Simeon's  and  Joseph's  may  or  may 
not  have  been  decorated;  the  MS  offers  no  evi- 
dence whatever.  Then  the  angel  came  and  sum- 
moned Simeon  to  the  temple  sedes,  where  Joseph 
and  Mary  met  him  a  few  minutes  later. 

Multiple  Representation.  In  the  same  way 
the  rest  of  the  plays  cited  by  Mr.  Albright  might 
be  analyzed — likewise  any  other  play  in  any  other 
cycle, — but  these  seem  sufficient  to  show  the  use  of 
simultaneous  scenery  on  the  pageant-wagon.  Seven 
plays  in  all  have  now  been  noticed  from  the 
Chester,  Coventry,  Towneley,  and  York  cycles,  all 
of  them,  it  seems  to  the  author,  showing  the  same 
use  of  simultaneous  scenery,  with  the  pageant- 
wagon  as  the  stage  rather  than  as  a  sedes.    And 

28  Loc.  cit.,  p.  28. 

29  C/.    p.    129. 


CORPUS    CHRISTI   STAGING        161 

the  argument  would  now  be  complete  ^°  if  it  were 
not  for  the  fact  that  some  one  might  raise  the  ob- 
jection that  the  scenes  enacted  in  the  plays  above 
cited  may  have  been  successive  rather  than  simul- 
taneous. In  other  words,  it  might  be  objected  that 
after  the  creation  of  the  nine  orders  of  angels  in 
the  York  Creation,  while  Lucifer  was  making  his 
plans  against  the  heavenly  hosts,  Deus  did  not 
withdraw  to  a  separate  part  of  the  stage,  but  left 
the  platform  entirely,  as  the  custom  was  in  Eliza- 
beth's day,  thus  giving  another  scene;  or,  after 
the  fall  of  Lucifer,  while  the  demons  were  raging 
and  reproaching  each  other,  that  Deus  and  the  rest 
of  the  angels  were  not  visible  on  the  upper  stage, 
but  had  withdrawn  and  made  the  scene  successive 
rather  than  multiple;  and  after  Lucifer  and  his 
companions  had  ceased  their  wrangling  and  Deus 
had  taken  up  his  cue  on  the  upper  platform,  that 
the  demons  had  withdrawn  etitirely  and  were  no 
longer  visible; — in  other  words,  that  the  scenery 
was  simultaneous  and  the  representation  successive 
rather  than  multiple.  This  is  a  view  hardly  tenable 
in  view  of  what  is  now  known  of  the  Corpus  Christi 
stage;  for  we  have  already  seen  in  the  Wakefield 
cycle  that  the  custom  was  for  the  actors  to  keep 

80  To  the  argument  already  advanced  for  all  the  sedes 
on  a  single  pageant-wagon  the  author  would  like  to  add  a 
further  argument  that  the  platea,  as  well  as  the  sedes, 
was  sometimes  propertied  and  decorated.  A  propertied 
platea  would  be  an  impossibility  according  to  Mr.  Al- 
bright's theory.  Proof  for  this  argument  of  a  propertied 
platea  is  reserved  for  the  next  chapter.    Cf,  pp.  170-86, 


162      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

their  positions  when  not  engaged  in  action.^^  The 
same  convention  might  therefore  be  reasonably  ex- 
pected to  have  existed  in  the  other  cycles;  and  a 
few  examples  are  given  here  to  show  that  such  was 
the  case. 

York  "Dream  of  Pilate's  Wife".  The  York 
Dream  of  Pilate's  Wife  and  Jesus  before  Pilate 
opens  with  a  scene  in  Pilate's  judgment-hall,  where 
Pilate  receives  a  visit  from  his  wife,  Dame  Per- 
cula,  who  brings  with  her  their  son  and  a  maid. 
After  a  rather  lengthy  visit,  during  which  the 
family  all  drink  wine  together.  Dame  Percula  and 
her  son  and  maid  all  go  home  to  the  other  end  of 
the  stage  and  Pilate  goes  to  bed. — 

Pil.    I  comaunde  pe  to  come  nere,  for  I  will 

kare  to  my  couche, 
Haue  in  thy  handes  hendely  and  heue  me  fro 

hyne, 
But  loke  pat  pou  tene  me  not  with  pi  tastyng, 

but  tendirly  me  touche. 
Bed.    A!  sir,  yhe  whe  wele! 
Pil.    Yha,  I  haue  wette  with  me  wyne. 
Yhit  helde  doune  and  lappe  me  even  [here], 
For  I  will  slelye  slepe  vnto  synne. 
Loke  pat  no  man  nor  no  myron  of  myne 
With  no  noyse  be  neghand  me  nere.  .  .  . 
Bed.     Whe !  so  sir,  slepe  ye,  and  saies  nomore. 

11.     I33-49- 
81 C/.  pp.  152-4. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING        163 

In  the  meantime,  however,  Dame  Percula  has  got  to 
her  sedes,  where  she  goes  to  bed. — 

Dom.    Nowe  are  we  at  home,  do  helpe  yf  ye 

may. 
For  I  will  make  me  redye  and  rayke  to  my 

reste. 
Anc.    Yhe  are  werie,  madame,  for-wente  of 

youre  way, 
Do  boune  you  to  bedde,  for  pat  holde  I  beste. 
Fil,     Here  is  a  bedde  arayed  of  pe  beste. 
Dom.    Do  happe  me,  and  faste  hense  ye  hye. 
Anc.     Madame,  anone  all  dewly  is  dressid. 
Fil.     With  no  stalkyng  nor  no  striffe  be  ye 

stressed. 
Dom.     Nowe    be    yhe    in    pese,    both    youre 

carpyng  and  crye. — ^11.  150-8. 

After  she  has  gone  to  rest,  her  son  and,  supposedly, 
the  maid  lie  down  and  go  to  sleep;  for,  when  the 
devil  has  come  to  her  in  a  dream  and  told  her,  that, 
if  Jesus  is  unjustly  doomed,  Pilate  and  she  will  be 
destroyed,  she  bids  the  boy  get  up  in  a  hurry  and 
run  to  her  lord  with  the  news  of  her  dream.  The 
boy  complains  sorely  at  being  awakened  at  mid- 
night, promises  to  go  however,  but  decides  to  take 
a  nap  before  doing  so.  Then  the  soldiers  come 
forward  with  their  prisoner,  awaken  Pilate,  and  the 
trial,  which  is  not  useful  for  our  purpose  here, 
begins.  ^ 


164      CORPUS   CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

In  this  play  we  have  Pilate,  Dame  Percula,  her 
son,  and  possibly  her  maid,  all  asleep  on  the  stage 
at  the  same  time.  Dame  Percula  can  not  have 
gone  off  the  stage,  because  the  devil  immediately 
comes  to  her  in  her  dream;  her  son  cannot  have 
left  after  putting  her  to  sleep,  because  she  bids  him 
get  up  and  carry  the  news  to  Pilate;  and  Pilate 
cannot  have  gone,  because  the  soldiers  come  and 
awaken  him  to  get  his  judgment  on  Christ.  Dame 
Percula  may  or  may  not  have  left  the  stage  after 
her  dream — we  do  not  hear  from  her  any  more, — ■ 
but  certainly  when  the  soldiers  enter  the  platea, 
wherever  they  may  have  come  from — whether  from 
a  separate  sedes  or  from  the  dressing-room  below, 
— we  have  Pilate  and  his  boy  asleep  on  the  stage 
and  each  in  a  different  locus. 

And,  in  addition  to  the  actual  fact  that  these 
characters  were  all  asleep  on  the  stage  at  the  same 
time,  there  is  a  definite  reason  why  they  were  each 
made  to  go  to  sleep  during  the  process  of  action  at 
another  sedes.  The  reason  for  Dame  Percula's 
sleep  is  evident  at  a  glance :  it  is  that  the  devil  may 
come  to  her  in  a  dream ;  but  the  reason  for  the  boy's 
is  not,  especially  since  the  Dame  sends  him  in  great 
haste  to  Pilate.  According  to  Mr.  Albright's 
theory  there  is  no  solution  to  this  question  at  all; 
in  fact,  the  mere  presence  of  two  propertied  bed- 
room scenes  in  the  same  play  is  contrary  to  his 
theory.  But  if  we  allow  Pilate's  hall  and  Dame 
Percula's  chamber  both  on  the  same  pageant-stage, 


CORPUS   CHRISTI    STAGING        165 

an  easy  solution  is  offered :  that,  on  account  of  the 
close  proximity  of  the  sedes  on  a  necessarily  limited 
stage,  the  author  of  the  play  was  compelled  to  re- 
sort to  some  such  expedient  as  this  to  make  the 
scene  seem  as  real  as  possible.  Stage  curtains 
were  unknown,  shift  of  scenery  impossible;  and 
since  the  two  scenes  must  of  necessity  be  presented 
close  to  each  other,  then  the  easiest  way  around  this 
crudity,  which  the  author  of  this  scene  seems  to 
have  recognized,  perhaps  unconsciously,  was  to  put 
each  actor  to  sleep  while  the  other  one  was  playing. 
Chester  "  Lot  and  Abraham  ".  So  far  as  the 
stage-directions  go,  however,  the  most  definite  and 
specific  evidence  of  the  actors  remaining  on  the 
stage  and  in  their  separate  sedes  comes  from  the 
Chester  Lot  and  Ahraham,^^  which  immediately 
follows  the  Noah's  Flood.  The  play  begins  with  a 
prologue  by  a  messenger,  who  says: 

All  lordinges  that  be  heare  presente, 

And  harcken  me  with  good  intente, 

Howe  Noye  awaie  from  us  he  wente, 

And  all  his  companye; 

And  Abraham,  through  Codes  grace, 

He  is  comen  into  this  place, 

And  ye  will  geve  us  rombe  and  space 

To  tell  you  of  storye. — p.  57.  , 

Then  Abraham  and  Lot  come  into  their  places  and 

82  C/.  Wright's  edition,  printed  for  the  Shakespeare  So- 
ciety, London,  1843,  pp.  57-76. 


166      CORPUS    CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

the  stage-direction  reads:  Heare  Abraham,  hav- 
inge  restored  his  brother  Lote  into  his  owne  place, 
doth  firste  of  al  begine  the  playe.  Abraham  now 
thanks  God  for  the  victory  over  the  four  heathen 
kings  and  vows  a  tenth  of  all  the  spoil  received 
from  the  fight.  Then  occurs  the  stage-direction: 
Heare  Lote,  torninge  hym  to  his  brother  Abraham, 
dothe  saye.  .  .  .  There  is  no  need  for  further 
analysis  of  this  play.  Lot  in  **  his  owne  place  " 
"  torninge  hym  to  his  brother  Abraham  "  is  suffi- 
cient to  show  the  custom  of  each  actor  keeping  his 
own  sedes. 

Other  Illustrations.  In  like  manner,  numer- 
ous other  examples  of  an  actor's  remaining  on  the 
stage  when  not  in  action  may  be  noted  at  much  less 
length.  In  the  York  Purification  cited  above  the 
scene  in  the  temple  (1.  339)  is  made  to  wait  while 
an  angel  tells  Simeon  of  Christ's  presence  there 
(11.  340-53).  Likewise,  Simeon  in  the  Chester 
Purification  is  bidden  to  sit  expectans  consolationem ^ 
(1.  120)  while  Mary  and  Joseph  are  deciding  the 
question  of  coming  to  the  temple.  And  in  the 
Nativity  play  of  the  same  cycle  Joseph  must  have 
been  in  his  sedes  and  waiting  for  Mary  before  her 
arrival  from  Elizabeth's  house  (1.  120).  And, 
finally,  in  the  Coventry  shearmen  and  tailors'  play 
Mary  must  have  remained  in  her  locus  while 
Joseph  wandered  away  from  home  (11.  136-55). 
The  author  does  not  claim,  of  course,  that  an  actor 
who  kept  his  seat  once  remained  in  it  always,  nor 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   STAGING       167 

that  all  actors  kept  their  sedes  all  the  time,  but  that 
the  convention  of  the  players  remaining  on  the 
stage  when  not  in  action  was  a  common  one. 

Summary.  In  conclusion,  then,  and  by  way 
of  summarizing  some  of  the  principles  of  Corpus 
Christi  staging,  the  author  seems  justified  in  say- 
ing: (i)  that  the  circumstances  under  which  the 
processional  plays  developed  and  continued  to  be 
presented  resulted  in  many  incongruities;  (2)  that 
one  of  these  incongruous  elements  was  the  use  of 
the  p^gea.nt-sedes ;  (3)  that  the  attempt  which  has 
been  made  in  recent  years  to  regard  the  pageant- 
wagon  as  the  mere  equivalent  of  a  sedes  or  a  locus, 
rather  than  as  a  stage,  is  founded  on  statements 
and  records  which  have  been  misinterpreted;  (4) 
that  a  careful  examination  of  the  plays  of  the  pro- 
cessional cycles  proves  conclusively  that  they  cannot 
have  been  staged  according  to  this  theory;  and  (5) 
that  they  show  undoubted  evidence  on  the  contrary 
of  simultaneous  scenery  and  multiple  representa- 
tion, with  the  pageant-car  as  a  stage  rather  than  as 
a  sedes. 


VI 


CONVENTIONS  OF  THE  CORPUS 
CHRISTI    STAGE 

Introductory.  In  the  preceding  chapter  some- 
thing has  been  shown  of  the  use  of  simultaneous 
scenery  on  the  Corpus  Christi  stage.  That  is  to 
say,  when  the  action  of  a  play  required  different 
scenes,  these  scenes  were  located  on  pulpits,  or 
sedes,  set  on  the  stage  and  raised  somewhat  above 
it,  a  separate  sedes  being  employed  for  each  place 
or  house.  Bethlehem,  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  and 
Simeon's  home  were  all  near  to  each  other  on  the 
same  platform,  even  though  in  the  actual  world  they 
might  be  miles  apart.  The  consciousness  of  the 
audience,  however,  kept  these  places  separate  and 
distinct,  and  for  all  the  purposes  of  the  dramatist 
these  sedes  sufficed  to  give  a  semblance  of  reality  to 
the  chief  feature  of  the  plays,  the  action.  Scenery 
in  the  modern  sense  was  unknown  and  undesired, 
since  the  purpose  of  the  plays  was  not  to  make  men 
see  where  an  event  in  biblical  history  had  happened, 
but  to  make  them  know  intellectually  and  feel  emo- 
168 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  169 

tionally  what  had  occurred.  The  audience  was  not 
especially  interested  in  the  places  or  the  scenery 
centering  around  Christ's  life,  but  rather  in  the  rep- 
resentation of  his  passion,  his  suffering,  and  his 
death. 

Symbolism.  And  yet,  in  order  to  present  the 
events  of  the  biblical  narrative  with  any  degree  of 
clearness,  a  certain  kind  or  amount  of  scenery  was 
necessary.  Heaven  and  hell,  Bethlehem  and 
Jerusalem,  Calvary  and  the  Mount  of  Olives  must 
all  be  represented  and  yet  be  kept  distinct  from 
each  other;  and  the  only  way  to  accomplish  this, 
as  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  century  dramatists  saw 
it,  was  through  a  continuation  of  the  symbolic  stage 
of  the  church  and  the  cathedral,  with  one  end  of  the 
platform  for  Bethlehem,  the  other  for  Jerusalem. 
Such  a  system  of  staging  is  in  direct  contradiction 
to  the  twentieth-century  ideal  of  complete  illusion 
in  a  staged  scene,  and  to  us  of  to-day  seems  in- 
congruous in  the  extreme,  even  absurd,  since  it  is 
evident  that  no  stage  picture  could  have  been  at- 
tempted at  all.  And  yet  these  elementary  attempts 
at  scenery  seem  to  have  been  perfectly  appropriate 
to  the  medieval  mind.  Medieval  thought  reveled  in 
symbolism,  and  any  symbolical  technique  in  the 
drama  was  therefore  in  perfect  conformity  to  the 
medieval  habit  of  thinking.  There  was  no  inten- 
tion to  make  heaven  and  earth  seem  actually  on  the 
upper  and  lower  stages ;  there  was  only  an  attempt 
to  furnish  the  audience  with  symbols  of  these  two 


170     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

worlds.  The  customary  habits  of  imagination  on 
the  part  of  the  audience  did  the  rest.  Likewise, 
the  green  eyes,  the  gaping  jaws,  and  the  fiery 
smoke  issuing  from  the  dragon's  head  were  sup- 
posed to  be,  not  so  much  a  representation  as  a 
symbol,  of  hell.  And,  similarly,  the  whole  stage 
was  incongruous  but  symbolical;  but,  with  the  in- 
terest of  the  audience  centered  in  the  action  rather 
than  in  the  scenery,  this  system  of  staging  was  en- 
tirely adequate  for  successful  representation. 

Propertied  "  Plateae  ",  Another  question  pres- 
ents itself,  however:  If  the  representation  of  the 
temple  in  Jerusalem  at  one  end  of  the  stage  and 
the  home  of  Joseph  at  the  other  was  symbolical, 
was  the  passage  in  between,  the  platea,  the  country, 
necessarily  completely  bare  of  scenery?  Mr.  Al- 
bright, in  consequence  of  his  theory  that  the 
pageant-wagon  was  only  one  of  the  sedes  and  that 
the  platea  was  a  fixed  scafifold  in  the  street,  or  else 
the  street  itself,  finds  himself  driven  to  the  infer- 
ence that  the  platea  was  entirely  bare.^  But  if  the 
present  writer  has  been  able  to  interpret  the  plays 
and  the  guild  account-books  correctly,  not  only  were 
both  platea  and  sedes  situated  on  the  pageant- 
wagon,  but  the  platea,  as  well  as  the  sedes,  was  fur- 
nished with  symbolical  properties. 

Unlocated  Elizabethan  Scenes.  Mr.  G.  F. 
Reynolds  in  an  admirably  sane  and  convincing 
paper  on  *'  Trees "  on  the  Stage  of  Shakespeare 

1  A  Typical  Shakesperian  Stage,  p.  iv. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  171 

has  shown  that  forests,  wildernesses,  and  waste 
places  generally  were  customarily  represented  on 
the  Elizabethan  stage  by  trees,  only  two  or  three 
being  required.  Mr.  Reynolds  says:  "It  [a  for- 
est] was,  of  course,  not  so  difficult  to  arrange  as  a 
forest-setting  similarly  constituted  would  be  upon 
our  modern  stage.  A  few  trees — one,  two,  three, 
five — were  enough,  for  the  convention  of  *  sym- 
bolic '  scenery,  by  which  one  property  suggested 
many,  saved  the  Elizabethans  much  expense  and 
trouble.  It  is  therefore  quite  unnecessary  to  sup- 
pose that  in  a  wood  scene  the  *  trees '  covered  any 
large  part  of  the  stage.  Orlando  Furioso,  with  half 
its  action  laid  in  the  woods,  must  have  had  some 
open  space  for  the  other  half.  No  one,  indeed, 
could  imagine  the  whole  stage  covered  with  trees. 
Two  or  three  would  have  been  quite  sufficient."^ 
These  trees,  Mr.  Reynolds  shows,  were  also  used 
in  the  representation  of  the  usual  unlocated  scenes; 
that  is,  scenes  that  were  not  assigned  to  any  definite 
place  but  which  might  have  occurred  anywhere. 
And  in  another  paper  ^  Mr.  Reynolds  has  proved 
with  equal  conclusiveness  that  other  properties  than 
trees  were  to  be  found  in  these  unlocated  scenes, 
properties  which,  though  present  because  needed  in 
some  other  scene,  were  often  really  incongruous  to 
the  scene  in  progress  and,  consequently,  were  neces- 
sarily thought  of  as  absent. 

2  Modern  Philology,  v.  162. 

^Some    Principles    of    Elizabethan    Staging,    Modern 
Philology,  June,  1905. 


172      CORPUS   CHRIST!    PAGEANTS 

Hegge  Plays.  Likewise,  it  may  be  shown 
very  easily  that  trees  were  uesd  on  the  platea  of 
the  contemporary  non-processional  stage.  For  in- 
stance, in  that  part  of  the  Hegge  plays  which  rep- 
resents the  journey  of  Joseph  and  Mary  to 
Bethlehem,  after  they  have  started  on  their  jour- 
ney, Mary  stops  and  asks : 

Maria.    A!  my  swete  husbond,  wolde  je  telle 
to  me, 
What  tre  is  ^on  standynge  upon  jon  hylle? 
Josephe.     fforsothe,  Mary,  it  is  clepyd  a  chery 
tre; 
In  tyme  of  gere  je  myght  ffede  30W  theron 
gour  ffylle. 
Maria.    Turne    ageyn,  husbond,  and  behold 
gon  tre. 
How  that  it  blomyght  now  so  swetly. 
Joseph.    Cum  on,  Mary,  that  we  worn  at  jon 
cyte; 
Or  ellys  we  may  be  blamyd,  I  telle  30W 
lythly. 
Maria.    Now,   my   spowse,    I    pray   gow    to 
behold, 
How  the  cheryes  growyn  upon  jon  tre ; 
ffor  to  have  therof  ryght  ffayn  I  wold. 

And  it  plesyd  30W  to  labore  so  meche  for 
me.* 
Mary  ends  by  getting  her  cherries,  and  the  pair 
go  on  into  the  city. 
*HalliweIl,  Ludus  Coventricp,  pp.  14S-6. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  173 

The  incident,  as  may  be  seen,  is  unlocated;  it 
occurred  somewhere,  anywhere  between  Jerusalem 
and  Bethlehem;  and  yet  a  tree  of  some  sort  must 
have  been  on  the  platea;  for  the  scer|e  could  not 
have  been  given  without  it. 

Likewise,  later  in  the  same  play,  in  the  part  rep- 
resenting the  adoration  of  the  Magi,  we  have 
what  seems  to  be  this  same  tree  used  to  symbolize 
a  country  scene  again.  Herod  is  boasting  in  his 
court  and  is  sending  out  his  steward  to  learn  of  any 
trouble  in  the  land. — 

[Herod.]     Sty  ward  bolde, 
Walke  thou  on  mowlde. 
And  wysely  beholde 

Alle  abowte; 
Iff  any  thynge 
Shuld  greve  the  kynge, 
Brynge  me  tydydge  [sic]. 

If  there  be  ony  dowte. 
Senescallus.     Lord,  kynge  in  crowne, 
I  go  fro  towne. 
By  bankys  browne 

I  wylle  abyde ; 
And  with  erys  lyste, 
Est  and  west, 
If  any  geste 

On  grownde  gynnyth  glyde. 

Tunc  ibit  senescallus  et  ohviahit 
tribus  regibus  et  dicit  eis 


174     CORPUS   CHRIStI   PAGEANTS 

Kynges  iij., 
Undyr  this  tre, 
In  this  countre 

Why  wylle  je  abyde?* 

The  Hegge  plays,  one  ought  possibly  to  be  re- 
minded, were  not  originally  cut  into  the  short, 
separate  scenes  as  given  by  Halliwell,  but  the  en- 
tire cycle  was  intended  for  presentation,  apparently, 
in  three  successive  days,  or  years.  Hence  the  play 
of  which  this  forms  a  part  is  to  be  taken  as  the 
same  as  the  preceding  one.  So  we  apparently  have 
the  same  tree  for  the  country  scene.  And  here 
again,  it  is  noticeable,  the  scene  is  specifically  in 
the  country,  anywhere,  and  hence  unlocated;  and 
the  symbol  of  the  country  seems  unquestionably  to 
be  this  cherry  tree. 

If,  then,  as  Mr.  Reynolds  has  conclusively 
shown,  properties  were  used  in  unlocated  scenes  on 
the  Elizabethan  stage,  and  if  they  were  required 
for  similar  scenes  on  the  plateae  of  the  non-proces- 
sional stage,  does  it  not  seem  probable  that  such  a 
convention  might  well  have  existed  on  the  Corpus 
Christi  stage?  And  since  the  located  scenes  on  the 
Corpus  Christi  stage  were  propertied  and  symbolic- 
ally represented,  does  it  not  seem  that  we  have 
double  reasons  for  expecting  a  similar  propertied, 
symbolical  representation  of  the  unlocated  scenes  in 
the  same  plays?  The  answer  cannot  be  otherwise 
than  in  the  affirmative. 

^  Loc.  cit.,  p.  164. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  175 

York  "  Joseph's  Trouble  ".  But,  to  turn  from 
probabilities  to  facts,  let  us  look  at  one  or  two  of 
the  Corpus  Christi  plays  in  which  a  propertied 
platea  was  actually  needed.  The  York  Joseph's 
Trouble  about  Mary  is  one  of  these.  In  this  play, 
when  Joseph  finds  his  wife  with  child,  he  leaves 
her  and  goes  off  into  the  wilderness.  And  while 
wandering  he  falls  into  a  monologue: — 

Jos.     Nowe,  lord  God !  pat  all  ping  may 
At  thine  owne  will  bothe  do  and  dresse, 
Wisse  me  now  som  redy  way 
To  walk  here  in  pis  wildirnesse. — 11.  237-40. 

Tlien  he  falls  asleep,  and  an  angel  tells  him  to  re- 
turn to  his  wife. — 

Ang.    Waken,  Joseph !  and  take  bettir  kepe 
To  Marie,  pat  is  pi  felawe  fest. 
Jos.    A !  I  am  full  werie,  lefe  late  me  slepe, 
For- wandered  and  walked  in  pis  forest. 

—11.  247-50. 

In  this  case  we  need  some  sort  of  representation 
of  a  wilderness  for  a  proper  understanding  of  the 
scene;  and  yet  the  scene,  because  of  its  being  un- 
located,  must  have  been  presented  on  the  platea. 

In  like  manner,  in  the  corresponding  play  at 
Coventry,  the  weavers'  pageant,  when  Joseph 
"  gothe  from  Mare  ",  he  says : 


176      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

[Josoff,]  I  wandur  abowt  myself  alone, 
Turtulis  or  dowis  can  I  non  see.  .  .  . 
Lord,  henedissete !    Whatt  make  I  here 
Among  these  heggis  myself  alone? 
For-were  I  ma  no  lengur  stond ; 
These  buskis  the  teyre  me  on  eyuere  syde. 

-11.     506-17. 

How  are  we  to  suppose  that  this  field  scene  was 
presented  ?  Is  it  likely  that  the  platea  was  bare  and 
the  wilderness  only  supposed  to  be  there?  Or  is 
it  more  probable  that  a  small  bush  or  so,  as  on  the 
Elizabethan  stage,  was  used  to  symbolize  this  coun- 
try scene  ? 

Paradise.  A  discussion  of  paradise  does  not 
properly  belong  here  among  the  unlocated  scenes, 
but,  before  going  to  the  concluding  and  conclusive 
argument  for  the  use  of  trees  in  country  scenes,  it 
may  be  well  to  look  for  a  moment  at  a  slight  bit  of 
evidence,  the  contemporary  method  of  representing 
paradise  scenes,  which  may  cast  some  light  on  the 
problem  before  us. 

In  the  later  Cornish  Creation  of  the  World  the 
stage-directions  state  that  paradise  shall  be  indi- 
cated on  the  stage  by  having  "  ii  fayre  trees  in  yt ", 
a  "  fowntaine  ",  and  some  "fyne  flowers  ".  Note 
that  only  two  trees  are  to  be  used  in  symbolizing 
paradise.  At  Norwich  the  grocers  seem  to  have 
had  only  a  single  tree  to  represent  their  paradise 
scene.®    And  at  Beverley,  if  we  may  trust  the  list 

«  Waterhouse,  Non-Cycle  Mystery  Plays,  p.  xxxii. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI  CONVENTIONS  177 

of  what  seem  to  have  been  all  the  properties  for  the 
Paradise  play,  we  find  paradise  symbolized  by  a 
single  tree.  In  1391,  the  entry  from  Beverley 
states,  all  the  properties  were  handed  over  to  one 
"  John  of  Erghes,  hayrer  ",  who  promised  "  to  re- 
deliver to  the  twelve  Keepers  of  the  town  for  the 
time  being,  at  the  end  of  his  life,  all  necessaries 
which  he  has  belonging  to  the  said  play  under 
penalty  of  20s.,  viz.,  one  car  ('  karre  '),  eight  hasps 
(*  hespis  '),  eighteen  staples  (*  stapils  '),  two  visors 
('visers'),  two  angels'  wings  (' winges  angeli'), 
one  pine  pole  (*  fir  sparr  '),  one  serpent  (*  worme  '), 
two  pairs  of  linen  boots,  two  pairs  of  shirts,  one 
sword  "."^  The  car  was,  presumably,  the  pageant- 
car  itself ;  the  hasps  and  the  staples  were  to  fasten 
the  gate  of  paradise  when  Adam  and  Eve  were 
driven  out;  the  visors,  two  pairs  of  shirts,  and  the 
linen  boots  were  for  them;  the  angel  wore  the 
wings  and  carried  the  sword  to  keep  them  out ;  the 
*  worme '  was  Satan's  garb ;  and  the  *  fir  sparr ' 
was  very  probably  decorated  for  the  forbidden 
tree  and  used  to  symbolize  paradise. 

As  said  above,  a  discussion  of  the  method  of 
representing  paradise  does  not  strictly  belong  here, 
but  the  fact  that  one  or  two  trees  symbolized  the 
scenery  in  paradise  shows  clearly  that  one  or  two 
trees  or  bushes  might  just  as  well  have  symbolized 
the  wilderness  or  the  country  scenes  at  York  and 
Coventry. 

7  Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  Beverley  MSS,  p.  66. 


178     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

The  Chester  "  Purification  ".  All  the  scenes  so 
far  noted  require  some  sort  of  forest,  or  country, 
or  garden  scenery  for  a  proper  presentation  and 
understanding  of  the  play.  The  incidents  could  not 
have  been  clearly  understood  without  such  symbols, 
even  in  the  unscenic  Corpus  Christi  days.  But  in 
the  Chester  smiths'  Purification  play  we  have  the 
use  of  trees  for  a  country  scene  when  there  were 
none  actually  needed  in  the  play.  In  the  smiths' 
accounts  for  1554  the  following  entry  is  found: 

1554-  We  gave  for  an  apeyll  tree  to  Ric.  Bel  founder, 
vid.;  For  another  apell  tre  to  Ric.  Hankey,  iiiid.;  For 
Ropes,  nelles,  pyns,  and  thred,  xd.;  We  gave  to  the 
porters  of  the  Caryeg,  iis.^ 

An  examination  of  the  smiths'  Purification,  how- 
ever, shows  that  no  possible  use  could  have  been 
made  of  these  trees  except  to  represent  the  country 
between  Bethlehem  and  Jerusalem.  There  are 
only  two  definitely  located  places  in  the  play,  the 
temple  and  Joseph's  home,  the  one  at  Bethlehem, 
the  other  at  Jerusalem ;  and  yet  we  have  two  trees 
bought  and  paid  for  by  the  company  for  use  in  the 
play.  A  cherry  tree,  probably  not  more  than  one, 
was  needed  to  symbolize  a  country  scene  in  the 
Hegge  plays,  as  we  have  seen,  and  one  or  two  trees 
were  often  used  in  unlocated  scenes  on  the  almost 
contemporary  Elizabethan  stage  to  symbolize  the 

8  Morris,  Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and  Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  305  n. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  179 

country.  What  more  probable  use,  then,  could  be 
made  of  the  two  trees  bought  by  the  smiths  in  1554 
than  for  the  unlocated  country  scene  in  their  play 
of  the  Purification? 

Coventry  "  Harrowing  of  Hell ".  But  there  is 
yet  another  use  of  an  apple  tree  which  has  so  far 
been  unexplained.  Sharp  makes  the  following 
statement  in  his  Dissertation  on  the  Coventry 
Mysteries: 

Amongst  the  various  items  of  Pageant  expenditure  by 
this  Company  [the  cappers,  who  represented  the  events 
from  the  harrowing  of  hell  through  the  Peregrinus  play] 
are  the  following: — 

Item  pd  for  a  pece  of  tymber  for  an  Apeltrie  .  ijs  iijd 
Item  pd  for  ij  cloutes  a  clasp  &  other  yron  worke 

about    pe    Apeltre xijd 

which  at  first  sight  might  lead  to  a  conjecture  that  the 
history  of  the  Fall  was  sometimes  exhibited  by  them;  but 
the  ensuing  stage  direction  and  extract  from  the  same 
subject  in  the  Ludus  Coventrise,  will  shew  that  Adam  and 
Eve,  though  not  particularized  in  the  list  of  performers 
in  the  Cappers'  Pageant  (in  consequence  probably  of  these 
short  and  subordinate  parts  being  taken  by  persons  who 
had  played  other  characters  in  an  earlier  portion  of  the 
Pageant)  were  nevertheless  indispensable  requisites,  and 
the  introduction  of  this  appropriate  and  distinguishing 
symbol  is  thus  readily  accounted  for. 

"  Tunc  dormyent  milites  &  ueniet  Anima  Christi  de 
inferno  cum  Adam  et  Euam.    Abraham  John  baptist 
&  Alijs. 


180      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

Anima  Christi.    Come  forthe  Adam  &  Eue  wt  the 
And  all  my  fryndys  pt.  her  in  be 
to  paradys  come  forthe  wt.  me 
In  blysse  for  to  dwellc 
pe  fende  of  helle  pt  is  jor  ffoo 
he  xal  be  wrappyd  &  woundy'  in  woo 
Fro  wo  to  welthe  now  xul  je  go 
Wt.  myrthe  evyr  mor  to  melle.» 


But  such  an  interpretation  of  the  use  of  the 
"  Apeltrie "  is  exceedingly  lame,  especially  when 
we  notice  that  clouts  and  a  clamp  were  bought  to 
hold  the  tree  in  place  on  the  stage.  For  if  the  tree 
were  to  symbolize  Adam  and  Eve,  which  is  itself 
very  improbable,  it  would  naturally  be  carried  with 
them  when  they  went  out  of  hell,  which  could  not 
have  been  done  with  the  tree  clamped  to  the  floor 
of  the  stage. 

On  the  contrary,  there  is  possible  another  and  a 
far  more  likely  use  for  the  tree.  The  account 
given  by  Sharp  is  not  dated,  but  it  is  noticeable  that 
the  next  entry  that  he  mentions  is  "  the  payment 
of  13d.  in  1540  *  for  the  matter  of  pe  castell  of 
emaus ' ".  But  this  scene  involving  the  castle  of 
Emmaus  is  the  well-known  Peregrinus  play,  in 
which  Christ  appears  to  Luke  and  Cleophas  on  the 
road  to  Emmaus.  Hence  a  country  scene  is  needed, 
and  from  the  mere  matter  of  the  relative  arrange- 
ment of  the  material  as  given  in  Sharp  it  would  seem 
that  the  tree  must  have  been  used  for  this  incident 

•p.  46. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  181 

in  the  Peregrinus  part  of  the  play.  We  have  not 
yet  found  the  Coventry  cappers'  play,  of  course, 
but  in  all  the  other  cycles  from  Chester,  Wakefield, 
York,  and  in  the  so-called  Ludus  Coventrice,  the 
Peregrinus  play  begins  with  the  country  scene  on 
the  road  to  the  castle  of  Emmaus.  Hence  it  seems 
fair  to  infer  that  this  "  Apeltrie  "  was  intended  to 
be  used  on  the  platea  as  a  symbol  of  the  country 
near  Emmaus. 

Unlocated  Scenes.  Such  a  theory  as  this  of 
properties  in  the  unlocated  scenes  does  not  seem 
improbable  or  unreal.  On  the  contrary,  it  seems 
that  some  such  staging  as  this  would  be  the  natural 
thing.  If  the  located  scenes  were  symbolically  rep- 
resented and  decorated,  why  should  the  unlocated 
ones,  simply  because  they  were  on  the  platea,  stand 
bare  of  all  ornamentation?  The  author  is  not 
aware  of  any  further  examples  of  trees  specifically 
mentioned  in  unlocated  scenes,  but  numerous  other 
instances  are  to  be  found  of  properties  on  the 
platea.     One  or  two  citations  will  perhaps  suffice. 

Towneley  "  Jacob  ".  The  Towneley  Jacob  con- 
cerns itself  with  the  meeting  of  Jacob  and  Esau,  and 
begins  with  Jacob  on  the  way  home  and  praying 
God  to  be  his  guide  "in  the  right  way  to  mesopo- 
tameam  ".    Then  he  says : 

The  son  is  downe,  what  is  best  ? 
her  purpose  I  all  nyght  to  rest; 
Vnder  my  hede  this  ston  shall  ly; 
A  nyghtis  rest  take  will  I. — 11.  9-12. 


182      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

God  appears  to  him  in  his  sleep  and  blesses  him, 
and  he  awakes  and  sets  up  the  stone  in  praise  of 
God.— 

lord,  how  dredfull  is  this  stede! 
Ther  I  layde  downe  my  hede, 
In  godis  lovyng  I  rayse  this  stone, 
And  oyll  wil  I  putt  theron. — 11.  41-44. 

Here  then  we  have  a  stone,  which  could  not  have 
been  an  imaginary  one,  used  in  a  scene  that  was 
supposed  to  occur  anywhere  between  Padan-aran 
and  Mesopotamia.  This  scene  was  unlocated,  too, 
and  yet  had  at  least  one  property  in  it. 

In  the  same  way  the  burning  bush  in  the  York 
and  Towneley  Children  of  Israel  plays  must  have 
been  on  the  platea;  in  the  Second  Shepherds'  Play 
at  Wakefield  there  must  have  been  a  real  represen- 
tation of  sheep,  so  that  Mak  might  steal  one  and 
run  away;  and  in  the  Offering  of  the  Magi  at 
Wakefield  a  litter  of  some  kind  was  on  the  platea 
between  Bethlehem  and  Jerusalem.  This  last  is  so 
clearly  a  use  of  a  property  in  an  unlocated  scene 
that  it  may  be  well  to  explain  it  a  little  more  fully. 
The  three  Magi  have  just  come  from  making  their 
offerings  at  Bethlehem : — 

primus  rex.     A,  lordyngys  dere!  the  sothe  to 

say, 
we  haue  made  a  good  lornay;  .  .  . 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  183 

ijus  rex.     lordyngys,  we  haue  traueld  lang, 
And  restyd  haue  we  lytyll  emang, 
ifor-thi  I  red  now,  or  we  gang, 

with  all  oure  mayn 
et  vs  fownde  a  slepe  to  fang; 

Then  were  I  fayn ; 
ffor  in  greatt  stowres  we  haue  ben  sted. 
lo,  here  a  lytter  redy  cled. 
a  jus  rex.     I  loue  my  lord !  we  haue  well  sped, 

To  rest  with  wyn ; 
lordyngys,  syn  we  shall  go  to  bed, 

ye  shall  begyn. — 11.  577-594. 

Here  we  have  a  litter,  an  entirely  incongruous  prop- 
erty, on  the  road  between  Bethlehem  and  Jerusalem. 
The  reason  for  its  presence  is  entirely  clear:  the 
Magi  could  not  lie  down  by  the  roadside  and  see 
visions  as  the  ordinary  actor  could;  their  clothes 
were  too  costly  and  could  not  be  soiled  with  dirt 
and  dust ;  so  a  litter  had  to  be  prepared,  incongruous 
as  it  was,  on  which  they  might  rest  while  hearing 
the  angel  tell  them  not  to  go  back  to  Herod. 

Summary.  Here  then  are  the  facts.  The  Eliza- 
bethan theatre  and  the  non-processional  stages, 
both  of  which  were  contemporary  with  the  Cor- 
pus Christi  plays,  used  trees,  one  or  two,  to  rep- 
resent forests  and  the  country  in  unlocated  scenes, 
and  the  Elizabethan  stage  used  many  other  heavy 
properties  in  unlocated  scenes,  properties  which 
were  not  only  incongruous,  but  often  impeding  to 


184     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

the  action  of  the  play.  There  is  no  reason  for  be- 
lieving this  incongruous  convention  an  innovation 
on  the  part  of  the  Elizabethans.  Likewise,  on  the 
Corpus  Christi  stage  many  scenes  are  to  be  found 
which  are  unlocated  and  yet  which  demand,  abso- 
lutely necessitate,  trees  and  other  properties  on  the 
platea;  and  there  are  unlocated  country  scenes  in 
which  trees  are  not  absolutely  needed,  but  for 
which  the  guild  account-books  seem  to  show  that 
trees  were  bought.  Then,  since  symbolism  was  a 
characteristic  of  the  Corpus  Christi  stage,  since  the 
regular  sedes  were  decorated  to  symbolize  certain 
places,  since  the  Garden  of  Eden  scenes  were  sym- 
bolized by  one  or  two  trees,  since  trees  and  other 
properties  were  used  in  unlocated  scenes  on  the 
Elizabethan  stage,  since  trees  and  other  properties 
were  necessitated  in  unlocated  scenes  on  the  Corpus 
Christi  stage,  and  since  trees  were  bought  for  plays 
in  which  we  can  find  no  other  use  than  for  un- 
located country  scenes,  it  seems  conclusive  that  the 
platea  as  well  as  the  sedes  on  the  Corpus  Christi 
stage  was  sometimes  decorated,  that  the  platea 
decorations  were  symbolical  like  the  others,  and 
that  in  country  scenes  trees  were  a  part  of  the 
symbolical  decorations. 

Symbolical  Distance.  The  symbolism,  how- 
ever, did  not  cease  here.  Just  as  definite  houses 
and  temples  were  symbolized  by  the  sedes,  so  by 
means  of  a  similar  exercise  of  the  imagination  great 
distances  and  large  spaces  were  symbolized  by  these 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  185 

country  scenes  on  the  platea,  or,  indeed,  by  the 
mere  platea  itself.  In  the  York  Abrahams  Sac- 
rifice  of  Isaac,  for  instance,  the  distance  from 
Abraham's  home  to  the  Land  of  Vision  is  so  great 
that  it  will  take  three  days  to  make  the  journey; 
and  yet  the  party  arrive  there  in  the  time  taken  to 
repeat  thirty-five  lines.  Similarly,  in  the  Coventry 
shearmen  and  tailors'  pageant  Joseph  speaks  of  the 
distance  between  Nazareth  and  Bethlehem  as  being 
three  leagues;  and  yet  he  arrives  in  twelve  lines' 
time. 

And  in  the  Chester  Resurrection,  when  the  three 
Maries  have  visited  the  tomb  of  Christ,  the  stage- 
direction  states:  Tunc  discedent  et  paulisper  cir- 
cumambulabunt,  et  tunc  obvient  disciptdis  Petro 
et  Johanni.  And  after  the  disciples  have  been  in- 
formed of  the  supposed  theft  of  Christ's  body, 
Peter  says: 

Abyde,  brother,  sweete  John, 
Leste  we  meete  with  anye  fonne ; 
But  nowe  I  se  no  other  wonne, 
To  ronne  I  will  assaye. 
Tunc    ambo    simul    concurrent,    sed    Johannes 
procurret  citius  Petro,  et  non  intrant  sep- 
ulchrum. 

These  plateae,  then,  it  should  be  remembered, 
though  representing  unlocated  scenes  and  being  per- 
haps often  undecorated,  were  symbolical  of  great 


186      CORPUS    CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

distances  and  were  just  as  important  in  the  stage 
presentation  as  were  the  sedes. 

Symbolical  Numbers.  Another  notable  sym- 
boHc  convention  on  the  Corpus  Christi  stage  was 
that  of  making  a  few  persons  represent  many.  This 
custom  would  probably  not  seem  so  absurd  to  us 
of  to-day  if  it  had  not  been  carried  to  such  an  ex- 
treme length  at  the  time.  For  example,  in  the 
Chester  Slaughter  of  the  Innocents  only  two  chil- 
dren are  actually  represented  as  slain  on  the  stage, 
whereas  Herod  tells  the  two  soldiers  they  will 
have  "  a  thowsand  and  yet  moe  "  to  kill.  And  in 
the  Wakefield  Herod  the  Great,  which  corresponds 
to  the  Chester  Slaughter  of  the  Innocents,  only 
three  children  are  killed  by  as  many  soldiers,  who 
return  to  Herod  and  boast  of  having  slain  many 
thousands. — 

We  haue  mayde  rydyng  thrugh  outt  lure: 
well  wytt  ye  oone  thyng  that  mordered  haue  we 
Many  thowsandys. — 11.  417-19. 

And  a  little  later  Herod  states  that  the  number  slain 
was  144,000. — 

A  hundreth  thowsand,  I  watt  and  fourty  ar 

slayn, 
And  four  thowsand;  ther-at  me  aght  to  be 

fayn.— 11.  487-8. 

Likewise  two  demons  represent  the  host  of  fallen 
angels  in  the  Towneley  Creation  and  Fall  and  two 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  187 

persons  the  entire  tribe  of  Israel  in  the  subsequent 
Pharaoh  play.  And  at  Chester  three  saved  souls 
and  six  damned  ones  represented  all  the  world  come 
to  judgment  in  the  Doomsday  play,  while  at  York 
there  were  only  two  of  each  kind. 

Time  Symbolism.  In  both  of  the  preceding 
conventions,  where  a  distance  of  a  few  feet  is  used 
to  represent  as  many  miles  and  where  one  person 
may  symbolize  a  hundred  or  a  thousand,  the  usage 
would  seem  to  have  been  due,  partly  at  least,  to  the 
necessary  limitations  of  space  on  the  meagre  Cor- 
pus Christi  stage;  but  in  the  next  convention,  time 
symbolism,  the  usage  can  be  attributed  only  to  a 
lack  of  realization  on  the  part  of  the  authors  of  the 
requirements  and  limitations  of  their  stages.  In 
the  Chester  Creation,  for  instance,  we  can  forgive 
the  dramatist  for  allowing  an  upper  stage  to  repre- 
sent heaven  and  a  lower  one  paradise  and  the  world 
at  large,  since  each  sedes  is  kept  distinct  and 
separate  and  there  seems  a  reason  for  the  methods 
employed,  but  it  seems  the  height  of  crudity  and  in- 
congruity to  represent  the  creation  of  Adam  and 
Eve,  the  expulsion  from  the  garden  of  Eden,  and 
Cain  and  Abel  at  the  age  of  *' XXX  yeare  ",  all 
within  the  compass  of  one  continuous  scene.  To 
us  of  to-day  the  custom  would  seem  more  reason- 
able if  there  were  any  break  in  the  scenes  to  in- 
dicate the  passage  of  time ;  but  there  is  none. 

In  the  same  way  it  is  difficult  for  us  of  to-day  to 
conceive  of  the  Chester  dramatist's  daring  in  repre- 


188      CORPUS   CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

senting  the  forty  days  in  the  wilderness  by  a  single 
continuous  scene  of  perhaps  ten  minutes  length. 
The  same  crudity,  however,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
plays  of  all  the  cycles.  In  the  Wakefield  Noah  and 
the  Ark,  for  instance,  a  space  of  "  thre  hundreth 
dayes  and  fyfty  "  is  supposed  to  elapse  within  the 
time  taken  to  quote  forty-five  lines,  and  in  the  cor- 
responding play  of  the  York  cycle  Noah  says,  "  A 
hundereth  wyntres  away  is  wente,  sen  I  began  pis 
werk  ",  when  the  audience  in  almost  as  many  sec- 
onds has  lived  through  the  whole  performance. 
And  at  Chester  the  incongruity  is  even  more  care- 
fully presented.     Here  Noah  says, 

A  loo  wynters  and  20 

this  shipp  making  taried  haue  I, 

where  the  audience  has  sat  through  the  whole  per- 
formance and  seen  that  the  ark  has  not  been  erected 
on  the  stage  at  all,  but  that  he  has  only  been  tinker- 
ing with  a  ready-built  boat,  pretending  he  was  mak- 
ing  it.^°    The   stage-direction   now   reads:     Then 

10  Perhaps  attention  may  be  called  here  to  the  corre- 
sponding York  play,  where  the  ark  may  have  been  put  to- 
gether by  Noah  in  the  presence  of  the  audience.  Some- 
thing of  his  method  is  indicated  by  his  measuring  his 
board,  hewing  it  even,  and  joining  it  to  the  other  parts  of 
the  boat  "with  a  gynn",  that  is,  a  catch.  In  other  words, 
the  various  parts  of  the  ark  were  all  made  ready  ahead  of 
time  and  fixed  with  catches  so  that  the  actor  must  merely 
lay  the  boards  together  and  by  means  of  catches,  "  gynns  , 
put  the  ark  together  in  a  few  minutes.  And  no  doubt  at 
the  rehearsals  one  of  the  chief  things  this  actor  had  to  be 
sure  of  was  that  of  being  able  to  put  these  parts  together 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  189 

Noah  shall  enter  the  ark,  and  his  family  shall  name 
and  recite  all  the  animals  whose  pictures  are  drawn 
on  the  hoards.  And  after  each  one  has  spoken  his 
part  he  shall  go  into  the  ark,  the  wife  of  Noah  ex- 
cepted. And  the  animals  depicted  must  agree  with 
the  names  given  them.  Then  a  little  further  on  the 
direction  is  given :  Then  Noah  shall  shut  the  win- 
dow  of  the  ark  and  for  a  little  while  in  the  house 
they  shall  sing  the  psalm,  "  Save  mee  o  God  ".  And 
opening  the  window  and  looking  ahout,'^^  Noah 
shall  say,  "  Now  40  days  are  fullie  gone  ",  etc.  He 
even  emphasizes  his  forty  days  by  saying  they  are 
"  fullie  "  gone.  Such  crudities  are  commonly  in- 
cluded among  the  symbolical  elements  in  the  Corpus 
Christi  drama,  but  to  the  present  writer,  after  a 
rather  extended  study  of  the  plays,  they  seem 
rather  to  indicate  ignorance  of  the  possibilities  and 
limitations  of  the  processional  pageants.  These 
crudities,  however,  are  their  worst ;  and  from  these 
we  may  continue  looking  at  some  of  their  other 
conventions,  comic,  symbolic,  and  otherwise. 

Anachronisms.     Along  with  their  crudities  it 
may   not   be   uninteresting   to   note   some   of   the 

easily.  Then  when  the  play  was  over,  and  while  the 
pageant  was  moving  to  the  next  station,  Noah  busied  him- 
self with  taking  down  the  ark  he  had  just  put  up,  arrang- 
ing the  boards  carefully  in  their  places,  and  getting  ready 
to  erect  the  ark  again  at  the  next  station.  If  this  was  the 
case,  however,  it  was  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule; 
for  the  general  custom,  as  at  Chester,  was  to  bring  a 
ready-made  ark  and  only  seem  to  work  on  it. 

11  The  author's  translation  from  the  Latin  following  11. 
160  and  256. 


190      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

anachronisms  so  common  in  these  plays.  It  is 
rather  comic,  for  instance,  to  find  Noah's  wife  at 
Chester  swearing  "  Be  Christe ! "  and  old  Noah 
himself  "  by  Sante  John ! "  In  the  Wakefield 
Killing  of  Abel,  too,  Cain  has  a  servant,  a  garcio, 
whom  he  orders  about  with  considerable  fierceness ; 
but  it  never  seems  to  have  occurred  to  the  author  of 
the  play  that  this  boy,  historically,  must  have  been 
a  very  near  relative  of  Cain's.  There  are  also 
bailies,  who,  Cain  fears,  will  catch  him  if  they  hear 
of  his  murder  of  Abel.  And  a  little  later  in  the 
same  cycle  we  find  Pharaoh  recommending  prayer 
to  Mahowne,  Augustus  Caesar  and  Pilate  swear- 
ing by  Mahowne,  Herod  calling  him  a  saint; 
Caiaphas  singing  mass,  and  Pilate  bribing  his 
soldiers  with  English  money,  £10,000,  to  say  that 

"  Ten  thowsand  men  of  good  aray "  came  and 
stole  the  body  of  Jesus  away  from  them.  Like- 
wise, in  none  of  the  cycles  does  it  appear  to  have 
been  out  of  place,  for  instance  in  the  Wakefield 
Prophet  play,  to  make  Moses,  David,  Daniel,  and 
probably  others,  all  appear  on  the  same  stage  to- 
gether.^2  The  whole  object  seems  to  have  been 
to  represent  the  scenes  as  the  dramatist  saw  them, 
and  it  seems  never  to  have  occurred  to  the  players 
that  their  view  might  be  anachronistic  in  any  way 
whatever. 

Rotation  Speeches.     A  further  evidence  of  the 

crudity  of  the  Corpus  Christi  stage  may  be  seen  in 

^2  The  subject  of  anachronisms  in  costuming  will  be  dis- 
cussed later,  p.  219. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  191 

the  rotation  speeches  of  the  actors.  In  other  words, 
when  there  were  several  characters  in  a  scene  and  all 
were  on  the  stage  at  once,  it  was  the  rule  rather  than 
the  exception  that  each  actor  should  speak  in  regular 
order,  no  matter  whether  his  speech  was  necessary 
to  the  thought  or  the  action  or  not.  An  excellent 
illustration  of  this  convention  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
seventh  Chester  play,  the  Adoration  of  the  Shep- 
herds, where  the  three  shepherds  and  the  boy  talk 
together.  Before  the  boy  comes  on  the  stage  the 
rotation  is  regularly:  first  shepherd,  second  shep- 
herd, third  shepherd,  first  shepherd,  second  shep- 
herd, third  shepherd,  and  so  on ;  but  after  the  boy 
enters  he  breaks  into  the  conversation  and  the  rota- 
tion now  becomes:  first  shepherd,  second  shep- 
herd, third  shepherd,  boy,  etc.  Nor  is  this  crude 
stiff  convention  common  to  the  Chester  plays 
only ;  it  is  to  be  found  in  those  of  all  the  cycles. 

Monologues.  Another  convention  equally 
crude  is  to  be  found  in  the  constant  use  of  the 
monologue.  This  usage  seems  to  have  been  for 
various  purposes:  as  an  aid  to  the  scenery,  to  give 
the  setting  of  the  play,  to  tell  its  purpose,  and  some- 
times for  the  sole  reason  of  theological  moralizing. 
Very  seldom  does  it  seem  like  the  natural  and  un- 
forced soliloquy  that  a  player  would  naturally 
think  to  himself.  On  the  contrary,  it  usually  has  all 
the  ear-marks  of  didacticism,  of  being  composed 
for  the  enlightenment  of  the  audience  along  some 
particular  line.     John  the  Baptist's  soliloquy  at  the 


192      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

beginning  of  the  York  Baptism  of  Jesus  is  such  a 
one,  its  purpose  being  not  only  to  give  the  setting 
of  the  play,  but  to  preach  the  need  of  baptism  and  a 
holy  life.  And  it  is  noticeable  in  this  preliminary 
speech  of  John  the  Baptist's  that  he  soon  forgets  he 
is  an  impersonator  of  the  forerunner  of  Christ ;  he 
becomes  a  preacher  of  the  fourteenth  century,  giv- 
ing up  his  part  as  an  actor  for  the  moment  and 
addressing  himself  to  "  bothe  wiffe  and  man  "  in 
the  audience  before  him,  in  a  purposed  attempt  to 
make  them  "  be  clene  in  levyng  ". 

Direct  Address  to  the  Audience.  This  use  of 
the  direct  address  always  v^eakens  the  dramatic 
force  of  the  play,  since  it  throws  the  listener  sud- 
denly from  the  world  of  fancy  to  that  of  reality; 
but  it  is  found  very  commonly  among  the  Corpus 
Christi  plays.  Usually  it  is  in  the  form  of  an  ex- 
hortation to  the  audience,  as  in  the  case  of  John  the 
Baptist's  sermon;  but  often  it  takes  the  form  of  a 
prayer  in  which  the  audience  is  addressed  directly 
and  is  warned  of  the  wrath  to  come.  On  the  other 
hand,  its  purpose  is  often  purely  structural,  as  a 
sort  of  prologue  or  epilogue  to  the  play.  The 
demon  who  comes  to  carry  off  Herod's  soul  to  hell 
in  the  Chester  Slaughter  of  the  Innocents  is  a  good 
example  of  the  address  of  warning.  He  addresses 
himself  to  the  audience  in  general  and  to  all  tap- 
sters in  particular: — 

No  more  shall  you,  Tapstars,  by  my  lewty, 
that  fills  ther  measures  falcly, 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  193 

shall  bear  this  lord  Company; 

The  gett  none  other  grace. 

I  will  bringe  this  [Herod's  body]  into  woe, 

And  come  agayne  and  fetch  moe, 

as  fast  as  ever  I  may  goe. 

farewell  and  haue  good  day ! — 11.  449-456. 

Direct  addresses  to  the  audiences  at  the  close  of 
plays,  good-byes  so  to  speak,  were  usually  spoken 
by  one  of  the  actors,  though  occasionally  the  parts 
were  given  to  regular  epilogues,  as  in  the  Chester 
Balaam  and  Balak,  or  the  Brome  Abraham  and 
Isaac.  When  such  addresses  came  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  scenes  they  were  usually  spoken  by  the 
principal  actor  and  served  a  treble  purpose,  to  pres- 
ent the  actor,  to  furnish  the  setting,  and  to  tell  the 
purpose  of  the  play.  In  this  way  Abraham  comes 
in  at  the  beginning  of  the  Wakefield  play  of  that 
name  and  for  a  space  of  fifty  lines  soliloquizes  on 
Adam's  sin,  Cain's  crime,  Noah  and  Lot,  and, 
finally,  on  himself,  his  age,  etc.  And  by  the  time 
his  monologue  is  finished  he  has  given  us  the  whole 
setting  and  purpose  of  the  play  and  has  introduced 
himself,  the  main  actor.  And  in  the  Temptation  of 
Jesus  at  York  the  part  of  the  Devil  in  the  first  fifty 
lines  is  plainly  to  give  the  setting  and  the  motif  of 
the  play,  though  the  Devil  in  this  case  does  not 
happen  to  be  the  main  actor. 

Prayers.  Another  similar  device  for  opening 
the  play  and  for  giving  the  setting,  etc,  was  in  the 


194      CORPUS    CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

use  of  formal  prayers  at  the  beginning  of  scenes. 
Simeon's  opening  speech  in  the  Chester  Purifica- 
tion is  one  instance  of  this  convention,  and  Noah's 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Wakefield  Noah  and  the 
Ark  another.  In  the  latter,  Noah  begins  by  prais- 
ing God  for  his  work  of  creation,  by  recalling  the 
creation  of  the  angels,  the  fall  of  Lucifer,  and  the 
creation  of  Adam  and  Eve  and  their  fall.  By  this 
time,  how^ever,  he  has  forgotten  that  he  is  praying 
to  God  and  now  speaks  of  Him  in  the  third  per- 
son. He  tells  how  everybody  now  living  sins 
boldly,  how  he  dreads  God's  vengeance,  and  how 
he  himself  is  growing  old ;  then  he  falls  back  into 
his  original  prayer  to  God,  calling  on  him  for 
mercy,  and  so  ends  his  praying.  But  it  is  evident 
that  the  whole  has  been  given  purely  for  the  sake 
of  introducing  the  play  and  the  principal  actor. 

Actors  Kneeling  in  Prayer.  It  would  be  in- 
teresting to  know  whether  Noah  and  the  other 
actors  in  these  prayer  incidents  were  regularly  on 
their  knees  or  not.  The  stage-directions  give  no 
evidence  in  these  cases,  but  it  is  probable  that  they 
were,  since  in  other  instances  the  players  are  def- 
initely bidden  to  kneel.  For  example,  in  the 
Chester  Adoration  of  the  Magi,  when  the  three 
kings  pray  for  the  fulfillment  of  Balaam's  prophecy 
of  a  Savior  to  come,  the  direction  states:  Tunc 
Reges  iterum  genua  flectunt}^  Yet  in  the  first 
prayer  no  direction  at  all  has  been  given  for  the 

13  Deimling.  Chester  Plays,  p.  163. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  195 

kneeling  of  the  actors.  And  in  the  Emission  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  the  same  cycle  a  similar  direction  is 
given  to  the  apostles:  Tunc  omnes  apostoli  genu 
flectent}^  Such  examples,  no  matter  how  many- 
might  be  given,  would  not  prove  the  usage  a  uni- 
versal one,  but  they  show  at  least  that  the  custom 
of  actors  kneeling  in  prayer  on  the  stage  was  pos- 
sibly a  common  one. 

Prologue.  Another  method  still  of  introduc- 
ing a  scene  or  play  was  through  the  usual  prologue 
so  well  known  to  audiences  in  later  Elizabethan 
days.  The  Chester  barbers  in  their  play  of  Abra- 
ham and  Melchisedech  and  Lot  had  a  prologue  in 
the  guise  of  a  nuntius  named  "  Gobet  on  the  grene  ". 
Apparently  he  called  the  audience  to  order,  an- 
nounced the  play  and  its  purpose,  and  retired  as 
Abraham  came  forward.  In  the  Towneley  Killing 
of  Abel  a  Garcio  served  as  the  prologue  and  intro- 
duced the  audience  to  his  master  Cain;  and  in  the 
Herod  the  Great  of  the  same  cycle  the  prologue 
was  a  nuncius,  who  performed  the  same  office  for 
his  master  Herod  and  gave  at  the  same  time  the 
setting  of  the  play.  And  at  Norwich  in  the  Fall 
of  Man  scene  the  prologue  had  two  different 
speeches  to  say,  one  to  be  used  when  no  pageants 
preceded  that  scene  and  another  when  the  custom- 
ary Creation  and  Fall  play  went  first.  The  part 
seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  of  minor  import- 
ance, however,  since  the  speaker's  fee  for  his  serv- 

1*  Wright,  Chester  Plays,  p.  124. 


196     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

ices  was  small  in  proportion  to  what  the  better 
actors  received.  At  Coventry  Sharp  notes  '2c?. 
"  paid  to  Jorge  loe  for  spekynge  pe  prologe  "  and 
4c?.  on  two  other  occasions. 

''  Music  with  the  Plays.  Along  with  the  pro- 
logues and  epilogues  may  be  noted  the,  employment 
of  professional  minstrels,  who  are  often  bidden  to 
strike  up  at  the  conclusion  or  in  the  midst  of  the 
scenes.  There  is  no  evidence  of  any  regular 
"  musical  accompaniment  to  the  dialogue  of  the 
existing  plays,  which  was  spoken,  and  not,  like  that 
of  their  liturgical  forerunners,  chanted  "}^  Music, 
however,  seems  to  have  been  a  frequent  accom- 
paniment and  to  have  been  employed  with  no  little 
dramatic  effect  in  all  the  plays,  its  function  being 
to,  heighten  the  action  and  to  add  a  touch  of^ 
dramatic  seriousness  to  the  exalted  portiaa&«p^or 
example,  in  the  CTTester  drapers'  Creation  and  Fall 
the  stage-/iirections  require  the  minstrels  to  play 
when  God  brings  Adam  into  Paradise,  while  He 
is  talking  to  the  guilty  pair  after  they  have  eaten 
of  the  forbidden  fruit,  while  they  are  being  driven 
out  of  Eden,  and  during  Adam's  following  lament. 
It  is  noticeable  in  all  these  instances  that  the  addi- 
tion of  the  music  is  made  at  just  the  dramatic  mo- 
ment and  when  the  softened  strains  from  the  in- 
struments would  tend  to  throw  a  glamor  of  serious- 
ness over  the  crucial  action.  A  very  similar  use  of 
the  violin  and  other  stringed  instruments  is  to  be 
seen  in  the  drama  of  to-day. 
1^  Chambers,  Mediaeval  Stage,  ii.  140. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  197 

Songs  and  Antiphons.  Not  always,  however, 
was  the  music  Hmited  to  the  instrumental  entirely. 
On  the  contrary,  vocal  selections  were  given  with 
equal  frequency,  and  choristers  from  the  neighbor- 
ing churches  engaged  to  sing  them.  Numerous  en- 
tries of  payments  to  the  "  clarkys  for  syngyng " 
are  to  be  found  from  time  to  time  in  the  guild  ac- 
counts, and  their  songs  and  antiphons  seem  to  have 
been  introduced  and  used  much  in  the  same  way  as 
the  instrumental  selections.  Oftentimes  they  were 
newly  written  for  the  occasion  and  were  sung  by 
the  actors,  assisted  at  times  by  outsiders,  at  some 
special  point  in  the  play.  One  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful and  effective  of  these  must  have  been  the  lullaby 
of  the  two  mothers  in  the  pageant  of  the  shearmen 
and  tailors  at  Coventry.  This  is  the  one  intro- 
duced into  the  play  just  before  the  killing  of  the 
children.  Herod  has  ordered  the  slaughter  of  all 
children  under  two  years  of  age ;  Mary  and  Joseph 
have  escaped  into  Egypt  with  their  child;  and  the 
two  mothers  come  in  singing: — 

Lully,  lulla,  thow  littell  tine  child, 

By  by,  lully  lullay,  thow  littell  tyne  child. 

By  by,  lully  lullay! 
O  sisters  too. 
How  may  we  do 

For  to  preserve  this  day 
This  pore  yongling 
For  whom  we  do  singe 

By  by,  lully  lullay? 


198     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

Herod,  the  king, 
In  his  raging, 

Chargid  he  hath  this  day 

His  men  of  might 
In  his  owne  sight 

All  yonge  children  to  slay, — 

That  wo  is  me, 
Pore  child,  for  thee, 

And  ever  morne  and  may 
For  thi  parting 
Nether  say  nor  singe. 

By  by,  lully  lullay.^« 

One  can  imagine  how  effective  this  song  must 
have  been,  with  the  slaughter  of  the  two  children  to 
come  next.  It  must  have  been  a  late  addition, 
however,  as  were  the  others  in  this  and  the  weavers' 
plays.  All  of  them  smack  of  the  Elizabethan  days 
and  are  in  striking  contrast  to  the  soberer  ritualistic 
antiphons  more  frequent  in  the  other  cycles.  The 
songs  of  the  angel  before  and  after  the  annunciation 
to  Mary  in  the  York  spicers'  scene  is  an  example  of 
the  usual  antiphonal  music  in  these  plays.  The 
Dignus  Dei  noted  in  the  margin  of  the  Chester  Fall 
of  Lucifer,  ^^  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis  sung  by  the 
angels  in  the  Coventry  and  Chester  plays  of  the 
Adoration  of  the  Shepherds,^^  and  numerous  other 

^^  Craig,  Two  Coventry  Corpus  Christi  Plays,  p.  32. 
17  Deimling,  Chester  Plays,  p.  12  n. 
isDeimling,  Chester  Plays,  p.  147;  Craig,  Two  Coventry 
Corpus  Christi  Plays,  p.  9. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  199 

such  responses  scattered  at  intervals  through  the 
plays  were  evidently  taken  from  the  offices  of  the 
church ;  and  one  would  like  to  think  that  all  the 
sequences  sung  by  the  choir  boys  in  the  plays  were 
of  the  same  origin,  though  a  careful  examination 
of  the  responses  shows  that  this  was  not  so.  Often- 
times they  came  directly  from  the  offices  of  the 
church,  but  almost  as  frequently  they  seem  to  be 
only  faint  echoes  of  musical  and  biblical  themes 
well  known  in  the  church  services. ^^  They  were 
rendered  by  singers  from  the  neighboring  monas- 
teries and  cathedrals,  even  though  these  choristers 
had  no  further  connection  with  the  plays.  A  note 
in  the  Chester  Adoration  of  the  Shepherds  directs : 
Tunc  omnes  pasiores  cum  aliis  adiuvantibus  canta- 
hunt  hilare  carmen.  And  numerous  entries  of  pay- 
ments to  church  choristers  for  aiding  in  the  plays 
are  to  be  found  from  time  to  time  in  the  guild 
account-books. 

Non-Speaking  Characters.  Where  the  choris- 
ters and  musicians  sat  and  how  they  were  regarded 
in  the  scenes  it  seems  impossible  to  tell.  In  some 
cases  they  seem  to  have  been  one  and  the  same 
with  the  angels,  and  as  such  would  probably  sit  on 
the  upper  stage  of  the  processional  pageant- 
wagons;  but  where  they  were  outside  characters 
entirely,  and,  as  at  Chester,  merely  aiding  the 
angels  in  their  songs,  it  seems  impossible  to  say 
what  disposition  was  made  of  them  when  not  sing- 

i»  Smith,  York  Plays,  p.  525. 


t 


200     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

ing.  The  same  problem  arises  with  regard  to  other 
non-speaking  characters  in  the  scenes.  In  the 
Towneley  Jacob,  for  instance,  there  were  evidently 
characters  in  the  play  who  did  not  speak ;  for  in  the 
MS  as  it  has  come  down  to  us  Jacob  in  going  to 
meet  Esau  divides  his  household  into  three  divi- 
sions, putting  Rachel,  Joseph,  and  Benjamin  in 
the  last  division,  himself  bringing  up  the  rear. 
Joseph  and  Benjamin  never  speak,  however:  and 
Esua  addresses  his  men,  bidding  them  hold  their 
hands  and  refrain  from  fighting;  yet  they  never 
reply  in  any  way  nor  give  any  evidence  of  their 
presence  on  the  stage. 

Exits.  On  the  contrary,  it  may  be  possible 
that  these  singers  and  silent  characters  boldly  and 
openly  walked  off  the  stage  when  not  needed  in  the 
scenes,  and  on  when  wanted,  and  that  they  were 
loafing  through  the  audience  and  being  eyed  by 
every  small  boy  in  the  crowd  when  not  engaged  in 
the  action.  Almost  no  evidence  at  all  is  to  be  had 
from  the  MSS  of  the  processional  plays,  but  it 
would  seem  that  some  much  arrangement  as  this 
might  well  be  implied  from  the  speech  of  the 
epilogue  after  the  killing  of  the  children  in  the 
Digby  Slaughter  of  the  Innocents: — 

wherfor  now,  ye  virgynes,  er  we  go  hens, 
with  all  your  cumpany,  you  goodly  avaunce, 
Also  ye  menstralles  doth  your  diligens, 
A-fore  our  departyng  geve  vs  a  daunce. — 11. 

563-66. 


CORPUS    CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  201 

From  this  one  might  infer  that  the  dancers  and  the 
musicians  on  the  stationary  stage  were  regarded  as 
entirely  separate  from  the  play  and  that  they  now 
came  forward,  possibly  from  somewhere  in  the 
crowd,  to  entertain  the  audience  for  a  few  moments 
before  it  dispersed.  And  it  may  be  that  some  such 
disposition  as  this  was  made  of  the  regular  players 
on  the  processional  stage.  We  have  seen  above 
that  actors  very  often  kept  their  seats  in  their 
respective  stages  when  not  occupied  in  a  scene,  but 
it  is  also  true  that  they  frequently  left  the  stage  al- 
together. In  the  Coventry  pageant  of  the  Nativity 
and  Slaughter  of  the  Innocents,  after  the  annuncia- 
tion to  Mary  by  the  angel,  we  have  the  stage-direc- 
tion, Here  the  angell  departyth,  and  Joseff  cumyth 
in,  indicating  plainly  that  Gabriel  has  gone  off  the 
stage  entirely.  And  so  later  the  direction  states 
that  Mare  and  Josoff  goth  awey  cleyne.  In  such 
cases,  if  there  were  a  lower  platform  used  as  a 
dressing  room,  these  actors  might  easily  exit  there, 
but  in  those  pageants  where  the  upper  stage  was 
used  as  heaven  and  the  lower  one  for  earth,  it 
seems  that  players  must  of  necessity  have  gone 
either  among  the  audience  or  else  under  the  wagon. 
Means  of  Exit.  These  exits  were  apparently 
made  by  means  of  ladders.  At  least  in  the  Coven- 
try drapers'  accounts  for  the  production  of  their 
Doomsday  play  we  have  notices  of  payments  for  a 
ladder  and  for  "  fetchyng  and  kepyng  ".^°     In  the 

20  Sharp,  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  74. 


202      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

case,  however,  of  the  exits  of  Christ,  God,  angels, 

etc,  from  the  upper  stage  to  the  lower,  or  vice 

versa,  the  descending  and  ascending  seems  to  have 

been  accomplished  by  means  of  a  windlass.    Sharp 

\  prints  accounts  for  windlasses,  windlass  ropes,  a 

]  locker  for  the  windlass,  and  for  men  to  keep  the 

\  windlasses ;  and  he  remarks  that  this  was  a  "  cus- 

|tomary  and  necessary  appendage  to  the  Pageant 

I  vehicles,  and  that  it  was  placed  in  the  lower  room 

)  or  floor  ".^^     It  was  by  this  method  no  doubt  that 

I  Christ  in  the  York  tailors'  pageant  of  the  Ascen- 

jsion  was  swept  up  to  heaven  when  he  prayed : — 

Send  doune  a  clowde,  f adir !  f or-thy 
I  come  to  pe,  my  f  adir  deere.^^ 

Feigned  Sleep.  What  seems  to  have  been  a 
definite  attempt,  however,  on  the  part  of  the  Corpus 
Christi  dramatists  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  exits 
on  the  one  hand  and,  on  the  other,  to  supply  the 
need  of  curtains  of  which  they  were  as  yet  ignorant, 
was  the  use  of  the  device  of  putting  an  actor  to 
sleep  when  he  must  necessarily  drop  out  of  the  ac- 
tion. That  is,  while  one  scene  in  a  play  was  being 
enacted,  it  was  often  customary  for  the  actors  in 
the  preceding  one,  instead  of  leaving  the  stage,  to 
pretend  to  be  asleep.  An  example  is  to  be  had  in 
the  York  bowers   and  fietchers'   play  of   Peter's 

21  Loc.  cit.,  p.  72.    Compare  also  pp.  47  and  68. 

22  Smith,  York  Plays,  p.  461,  11.  175-6. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  203 

Denial  of  Jesus.  The  play  opens  with  a  dialogue 
between  Annas  and  Caiaphas,  who  are  awaiting  the 
arrival  of  the  soldiers  that  have  been  sent  to  arrest 
Christ.  Night  comes,  however,  before  they  arrive ; 
Annas  apparently  returns  to  his  own  sedes;  and 
Caiaphas  goes  to  sleep,  leaving  two  of  his  soldiers 
on  guard.  At  this  point  the  scene  shifts  to  the  other 
end  of  the  stage,  where  Peter  denies  his  Lord  to  two 
women  and  where  Christ  enters  between  two 
soldiers  a  moment  later  to  remind  the  guilty  dis- 
ciple of  his  broken  vow.  The  soldiers  carry  Jesus 
to  Caiaphas's  house,  but  have  to  wait  outside  for 
him  to  be  wakened  before  the  trial  can  begin. 
When  he  is  finally  aroused,  however,  he  calls  Annas 
over,  they  take  their  seats  in  court,  the  guardsmen 
announce  to  the  captors  of  Christ  that  they  may 
enter,  and  the  trial  begins.  It  is  evident,  however, 
that  the  whole  matter  of  Caiaphas's  feigned  sleep 
has  been  only  a  slender  device  for  shifting  the  scene 
from  his  sedes  to  that  where  Peter  denies  Christ. 

Visions.  Another  device  very  similar  to  that 
of  feigning  sleep  for  the  sake  of  shifting  the  scenes 
is  that  of  pretending  sleep  for  the  sake  of  some 
vision  necessary  to  the  plot  of  the  play.  In  com- 
pliance with  this  custom  it  is  amusing  to  watch 
the  crude  excuses  devised  by  the  players,  usually 
the  principal  actors,  for  lying  down  to  rest  or  to 
sleep  in  order  that  an  angel  or  a  vision  may  appear. 
Joseph  becomes  so  worried  over  his  trouble  about 
Mary  that  he  must  of  necessity  lie  down  to  sleep 


204      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

in  the  wilderness,  where  an  angel  tells  him  the 
child  is  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  the  three  kings  on 
their  way  to  Jerusalem  become  strangely  sleepy  all 
at  once  and  lie  down  upon  a  ready  prepared  litter 
by  the  roadside,  where  an  angel  from  heaven  tells 
them  not  to  return  to  Herod;  and  Thomas  rests 
himself  on  a  bank  in  the  Vale  of  Jehoshaphat, 
where  he  sees  the  Virgin  in  a  vision  and  hears  her 
angels  singing  before  her.  Such  were  the  com- 
monly accepted  methods,  crude  though  they  be,  of 
representing  visions, — by  having  one  actor  feign 
sleep  and  another  in  the  garb  of  an  angel  come  to 
him  and  deliver  some  message  from  God. 

The  Crucifixion.  Perhaps  other  devices  which 
ought  to  be  mentioned  before  closing  this  chapter 
are  those  used  in  the  famous  crucifixion  scenes. 
Something  of  an  idea  of  the  jugglery  made  use  of 
in  the  would-be  realistic  representation  of  the 
wound  in  Christ's  side  may  be  had  from  Christ's 
words  in  the  Chester  Doomsday  pageant.  The 
scene  is  doomsday  and  Christ  is  talking.  He  has 
died  for  the  world  and  has  shed  his  blood  for  man- 
kind, but  he  will  go  further  and  shed  still  more. — 

Nowe  that  you  shall  appeartlye  see, 
Freshe  blood  blede  for  thee, 
Good  to  joye  and  full  greate  lee, 
Evill  to  damnacion, 
Behoulde  nowe  all  men  on  me 
And  se  my  blood  freshe  out  flye. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  205 

That  I  blede  on  roode  tree 

For  your  salvacion. 

Then  let  him  spout  blood  from  his  sideP 

In  the  crucifixion  scenes  as  well  the  blood  was 
made  to  flow  from  the  Savior's  side,  a  piece  of 
jugglery  which  was  accomplished  probably  by 
pricking  some  kind  of  small  leather  bag  concealed 
on  the  person  of  the  player.  We  have  no  references 
to  this  precise  scene  for  the  use  of  this  device,  but 
from  two  other  certain  instances  of  the  same  usage 
we  are  able  to  learn  the  method  with  a  fair  degree 
of  certainty.  For  instance,  in  Preston's  Cambises 
(licensed  1569),  when  Cruelty  and  Murder  catch 
Lord  Smirdis  and  "  Strike  him  in  divers  places  ", 
the  stage-direction  is  added:  A  little  bladder  of 
vineger  prickt.  Then  Cruelty  says :  "  Beholde, 
now  his  blood  springs  out  on  the  ground !  "  Like- 
wise, in  the  Canterbury  Marching  Watch  (July 
11),  the  townsmen  used  to  enact  the  murder  of  St. 
Thomas  h  Becket,  the  patron  saint  of  the  city ;  and 
the  semblance  of  blood  on  the  martyr's  body  was 
made  there  by  means  of  real  blood  carried  in  little 
leather  bags,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  following 
entries  in  the  town  documents: 

[1504.]  It.  paied  for  ij  baggs  of  leder  to  Gylliam    xviijd 

[1507.]  Pro   le   gettyng   sanguynem iiijd 

[1512.]  For  a  payer  of  new  gloues  for  Seynt  Thomas    jd 

[1529.]  For  a  new  leder  bag  for  the  blode  2*     .     .     vjd 

23  Wright.  Chester  Plays,  ii.  191. 

2*  Sheppard  in  Archaeologia  Cantiana,  xii.  36-7. 


206      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

From  these  entries  and  from  the  fact  that  a 
semblance  of  blood  was  necessitated  in  the  cruci- 
fixion scenes  one  may  readily  conceive  of  the  de- 
vice that  was  employed.  The  actual  crucifixion, 
the  suspension  on  the  cross,  must  of  course  have 
been  represented  by  tying  Christ  to  the  cross,  as  we 
are  frankly  told  in  the  stage-directions  was  the 
method  in  the  Chester  play  of  that  name.  Judas 
probably  was  hanged  as  in  some  of  the  melo- 
dramatic theatrical  performances  of  to-day,  by 
running  straps  under  his  shoulders  and  fastening 
the  gallows  rope  to  these.  Sharp  prints  the  follow- 
ing entries  with  reference  to  the  execution  of  these 
two  characters: 


[I573-] — pd.   to  Fawston   for  hangyng  Judas     .     .     iiijd 
pd.    to   Fawston    for    Coc    croyng     .     .     .     iiijd 

1576. — ffor  the  gybbyt  of  Jegie xviijd 

1577. — ffor   a   lase    [beam(?)]    for  Judas   &   a 

corde iijd 

1578. — pd  for  a  trwse  for  Judas     .     .     .     .     ijs  viijd 
pd  for  a  newe  hoke  to  hange  Judas -^     .     .    vjd 


These  two  characters,  Christ  and  Judas,  were 
important  ones  in  the  early  religious  drama  and 
their  execution  marked  perhaps  the  climax  of  each 
cycle.  The  strain  on  them  nervously  and  physic- 
ally must  have  been  terrific,  so  terrific  that  some-  . 
times  they  were  completely  overcome.  We  hear  J 
from  an  old  French  writer,  for  instance,  of  actors    •. 

2*  Coventry  Mysteries,  pp.  36-7. 


CORPUS   CHRISTI   CONVENTIONS  207 

in  the  Passion  at  Veximiel,  France,  almost  dying 
under  the  exertion.  "  In  the  year  1437,  on  the  3rd 
of  July  ",  the  chronicler  relates,  "  was  represented 
the  game  or  play,  de  la  Passion,  N.  S.  in  the  plain 
of  Veximiel,  when  the  park  was  arranged  in  a 
very  noble  manner,  for  there  were  nine  ranges  of 
seats  in  height  rising  by  degrees;  all  around  and 
behind  were  great  and  long  seats  for  the  lords  and 
ladies.  To  represent  God  was  the  Lord  Nicolle, 
Lord  of  Neufchatel,  in  Lorraine,  who  was  curate 
of  St.  Victor  of  Metz ;  he  was  nigh  dead  upon  the 
cross  if  he  had  not  been  assisted,  and  it  was  deter- 
mined that  another  priest  should  be  placed  on  the 
cross  to  counterfeit  the  personage  of  the  crucifixion 
for  that  day;  but  on  the  following  day  the  said 
curate  St.  Victor  counterfeited  the  resurrection, 
and  performed  his  part  very  highly  during  the 
play.  Another  priest ,  who  was  called  Messire 
Jean  de  Nicey,  and  was  chaplain  of  Metrange, 
played  Judas,  and  was  nearly  dead  while  hanging, 
for  his  heart  failed  him,  wherefore  he  was  very 
quickly  unhung  and  carried  off:  and  there  the 
Mouth  of  Hell  was  very  well  done;  for  it  opened 
and  shut  when  the  devils  required  to  enter  and 
come  out,  and  had  two  large  eyes  of  steel."  ^® 

Conclusion.  In  conclusion,  it  may  be  said  of 
the  dramatic  conventions  of  the  Corpus  Christi 
stage  that  they  were  symbolical  in  many  respects, 
but  crude  and  incongruous  on  the  whole.     In  the 

2«vHone,  Ancient  Mysteries,  pp.  172-3. 


208      CORPUS    CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

same  way  that  the  sedes  were  symbolical  representa- 
tions of  houses,  temples,  and  towns,  so  the  plateae 
were  decorated  to  represent  country  scenes  and  were 
at  the  same  time  symbolical  of  greater  or  less  dis- 
tances. Nor  did  the  symbolism  cease  here.  One  or 
two  people  were  often  used  to  represent  hundreds 
and  thousands,  and  a  few  moments  of  time  sym- 
bolized days  and  years.  Similarly  the  customs 
and  conventions  governing  the  actors  on  the  stage 
were  crude,  stiff,  and  incongruous.  The  audience 
was  often  addressed  and  preached  to  by  an  actor ; 
prayers  were  used  as  crude  devices  for  introduc- 
ing and  explaining  scenes;  characters  were  put  to 
sleep  in  all  sorts  of  impossible  places  and  under 
most  unfavorable  circumstances  for  the  sake  of 
advancing  the  plots;  the  actors  sat  on  the  stage 
during  action  or  left  it  if  not  needed,  exiting  by 
means  of  ladders;  ascensions  and  descents  be- 
tween earth  and  heaven  were  accomplished  by 
means  of  windlasses;  and  other  crude  customs 
and  devices  were  prevalent  in  the  plays  of  all  the 
cycles.  The  large  number  of  incongruous  con- 
ventions so  apparent  to  a  man  of  to-day,  however, 
did  not  dampen  the  enthusiasm  of  the  audiences 
of  that  day,  and  the  plays  continued  in  popularity 
until  their  death  from  other  causes. 


VII 
THE  ACTORS  AND   THEIR   COSTUMES 

Introductory.  In  spite  of  the  extraordinarily 
great  number  of  incongruities  evident  to  the 
twentieth-century  student  of  the  Corpus  Christi 
stage,  it  is  very  probable  that  the  actors  and  the 
audiences  of  the  fourteenth,  fifteenth,  and  sixteenth 
centuries  were  not  aware  of  the  presence  of  any 
such  inconsistencies  at  all.  Had  they  been  aware 
of  the  crudities  in,  for  instance,  their  crucifixion 
scenes,  they  could  not  have  sat  entranced  and  in 
tears  at  the  representation  of  Christ's  passion  and 
his  death  on  the  cross;  and,  moreover,  they  would 
have  removed  any  such  evident  incongruous  ele- 
ments; for  we  know  from  their  town-  and  guild- 
accounts  that  they  took  great  pride  in  a  proper  rep- 
resentation of  their  plays. 

In  the  preceding  chapters  we  have  seep  some- 
thing of  the  care  taken  in  the  mechanical  features 
of  the  pageants,  in  the  symbolic  scenery,  and  the 
general  principles  of  staging.  And  we  have  ob- 
served how  incongruous  and  inconsistent,  in  spite 
of  the  care  taken  in  preparation,  were  many  of  the 
209 


210      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

conventions  connected  with  the  production  of  the 
cycles.  We  have  not  so  far,  however,  considered 
in  detail  the  actors  in  these  plays,  their  costumes, 
and  the  general  conventions  governing  them.  It 
will  be  the  purpose  of  this  chapter,  then,  to  study 
more  fully  the  actors  themselves,  their  methods 
of  costuming,  and  their  preparations  for  the 
pageants. 

Requirements  of  the  Players.  As  has  been 
said  already,  great  care  was  taken  by  both  the 
townspeople  and  the  players  in  making  preparations 
for  the  pageants.  "  Good  speech,  fyne  players  with 
Apparill  comelye  ",  the  Chester  banes  advertised  of 
their  actors ;  and  that  this  was  generally  so  may  be 
seen  from  the  care  taken  by  the  towns  in  selecting 
these  players,  together  with  the  frequent  fines  for 
poor  playing  and  costuming.  For  instance,  it  was 
required  by  law  at  York,  "  pat  yerely  in  pe  tyme 
of  lentyn  there  shall  be  called  afore  the  maire  for 
pe  tyme  beyng  iiij  of  pe  moste  connyng  discrete  and 
able  players  within  this  Citie,  to  serche,  here,  and 
examen  all  pe  plaiers  and  plaies  and  pagentes 
thrughoute  all  pe  artificers  belonging  to  Corpus  Xti 
Plaie.  And  all  suche  as  pay  shall  fynde  sufficiant 
in  personne  and  connyng,  to  pe  honour  of  pe  Citie 
and  worship  of  pe  saide  Craftes,  for  to  admitte 
and  able ;  and  all  oper  insufficiant  personnes,  either 
in  connyng,  voice,  or  personne  to  discharge, 
ammove,  and  avoide.  ^  And  pat  no  plaier  pat  shall 
plaie  in  pe  saide  Corpus  Xti  plaie  be  conducte  and 


ACTORS   AND   THEIR    COSTUMES      211 

reteyned  to  plaie  but  twise  on  pe  day  of  pe  saide 
playe;  and  pat  he  or  thay  so  plaing  plaie  not 
ouere  twise  pe  saide  day,  vpon  payne  of  x\s,  to 
forfet  vnto  pe  chaumbre  as  often  tymes  as  he  or 
pay  shall  be  founden  defautie  in  pe  same  ".^ 

Miss  Smith  thought  the  meaning  of  this  last 
order  not  clear  and  suggested  that  it  might  refer  to 
a  player  undertaking  more  than  one  part  in  the 
same  scene;  but  Mr.  Joseph  HalP  has  suggested 
with  greater  probability  that  the  prohibition  was 
against  actors  playing  in  more  than  two  pageants. 
For  when  this  ruling  was  made  at  York  in  1418, 
there  were  no  less  than  forty-eight  plays  and  twelve 
stations  at  which  pageants  were  accustomed  to  be 
represented ;  and  since  a  popular  actor,  for  instance 
one  in  the  first  pageant,  might  be  especially  desired 
for  another  character  in  the  thirteenth  scene,  con- 
siderable delay  might  necessarily  be  occasioned  the 
thirteenth  pageant  before  this  popular  actor  could 
get  back  to  the  first  station,  change  his  costume,  and 
get  ready  for  his  part.  Mr.  Hall  thinks  it  was  for 
this  reason,  "  to  prevent  possible  delay  ",  that  the 
enactment  was  made,  and  not  to  forbid  one  actor 
playing  double  parts  in  the  same  scene.  And  no 
doubt  he  is  right :  the  law  forbade  any  player  from 
performing  more  than  twenty-four  times  in  one 
day;  not  an  unfair  leet  by  any  means. 

Double  Parts.     Miss  Smith  was  right,  how- 

1  Quoted   in    Smith,    York   Mystery   Plays,    Introd.,    p. 
xxxvii. 

2  Englische  Siudien,  ix.  448-9. 


212     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

ever,  in  her  suggestion  that  actors  probably  under- 
took more  than  one  part  in  the  same  play.  She  has 
called  attention  to  the  contemporary  Play  of  the 
Sacrament,  for  which  twelve  characters  were  re- 
quired, and  to  the  note  at  the  end  that  "  IX  may 
play  yt  at  ease  ",  and  also  to  Bale's  Kynge  Johan 
and  Preston's  Cambises,  in  both  of  which  several 
parts  might  be  performed  by  one  actor.  But  for- 
tunately there  is  other  and  more  direct  evidence 
in  the  plays  themselves,  a  part  of  which  Miss  Smith 
herself  called  attention  to  elsewhere,  though  she 
failed  to  mention  it  in  connection  with  the  above 
suggestion.  This  evidence  occurs  in  the  York  Tile- 
makers'  Second  Trial  before  Pilate.  In  the  be- 
ginning of  the  play  Christ  is  brought  for  the  second 
time  before  Pilate  by  two  soldiers,  who  apparently 
retire  after  turning  their  captive  over  to  their  chief. 
After  Christ  has  been  brought  into  the  hall,  how- 
ever, it  is  remarked  "pat  per  [the  standard-bear- 
ers'] schaftes  schuke.  And  thej  baneres  to  this 
brothell  pai  bowde  all  on  brede  ".  Pilate  becomes 
angry  with  the  standard-bearers,  but  they  declare 
that  they  could  not  help  their,  banners  bowing;  so 
Pilate  bids  his  beadle  bring  the  strongest  men  in 
the  country  to  hold  the  lances. — 

pou  bedell,  pis  bodworde  pou  here 

Thurgh  pis  towne ; — 
pe  wyghtest  men  vn-to  were. 
And  pe  strangest  per  standerdis  to  stere, 


ACTORS    AND    THEIR    COSTUMES      213 

Hider   blithely    bid    pam    be    bownc. — 11. 

212-16. 


Then  the  beadle  says: 

A  company  of  keuellis  in  this  contre  I  knawe 
That  grete  ere  and  grill,  to  pe  gomes  will  I 
gange. — 11.  219-20. 

According  to  the  rubric  he  now  goes  to  the  first  and 
second  soldiers  and  says: 

Say,  ye  ledis  botht  lusty  and  lange, 
je  most  passe  to  sir  Pilate  a  pace. 
i  Mil.     If  we  wirke  not  his  wille  it  wer  wrang, 
We  are  redy  to  renne  on  a  race, 
And  rayke. — 11.  221-5. 

As  Miss  Smith  says :  "  If  we  take  this  rubric  as 
correct,  the  beadle  goes  out  and  fetches  in  the  same 
soldiers  (ist  and  2nd)  who  had  brought  Jesus  back 
from  Herod  to  Pilate,  and  we  may  suppose  had 
then  retired.  .  .  .  They  as  well  as  Pilate  are,  how- 
ever, quite  unconscious  of  the  identity,  .  .  .  and 
we  should  probably  name  them  seventh  and  eighth 
soldiers".*  In  other  words,  we  have  two  actors 
playing  double  parts  in  this  scene. 

Again:     Sharp  makes  the  statement  that  in  1540 
"  the  matter  of  pe  castell  of  emaus  "  was  added  to 

*  York  Plays,  p.  327  n. 


214      CORPUS    CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

the  Coventry  cappers'  pageant.  "  But ",  he  says, 
"  no  further  particulars  are  discoverable  in  the  Ac- 
counts of  the  Company,  and  as  Cleophas  and  Luke 
are  the  only  characters  introduced,  besides  that  of 
our  Saviour;  it  seems  reasonable  to  conclude  that 
they  were  represented  by  performers  who  had 
personated  other  characters  in  the  former  part  of 
the  Pageant  ".*  Likewise,  in  the  Coventry  smiths' 
accounts  for  1490,  among  other  payments  to  God, 
Caiaphas,  Herod,  Pilate,  Annas,  and  others — each 
singly, — we  find  iSd.  paid  "  to  the  devyll  &  to 
Judas  "  and  i6d.  "  to  Petur  &  malkus  ",^  showing 
that  these  four  parts  must  have  been  represented 
by  only  two  men.  This  economical  method  of  em- 
ploying one  actor  for  several  parts  was  also  cer- 
tainly used  in  the  smiths'  later  Destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem. And  since  it  became  very  popular,  as  we 
know,  in  the  Elizabethan  period,  we  may  not  doubt 
that  at  this  time  too,  when  the  plays  were  given 
over  to  the  pageant-masters  who  agreed  to  bring 
them  forth  for  certain  fixed  sums,  these  men  were 
quick  and  willing  to  economize  in  every  way  pos- 
sible. 

Entertainment  of  the  Players.  These  players, 
as  said  before,  were  selected  with  the  greatest  of 
care  and  were  most  hospitably  entertained  at  the 
expense  of  the  companies.  In  fact,  the  actors  seem 
to  have  been  employed  with  the  understanding  that 
meals  and  drink  were  to  be  supplied  them.     At  any 

*  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  46. 
^Ibid,,  p.  16. 


ACTORS   AND   THEIR   COSTUMES      215 

rate,  the  guild-accounts  are  full  of  memoranda  for 
"  drinke  to  the  plaiers  ",  **  dennares  ",  "  stoopes  for 
dreanke  ",  "  mete  and  drenk  ",  "  wyne  ",  "  drencke 
to  them  that  plaied  ",  "  expenc  on  pe  pleares  for 
makyng  them  to  drynke  &  hete  at  ev'y  reste ", 
"  drynking  for  the  playars  betwen  the  play 
tymes ",  and  for  numerous  other  convivial  ex- 
penses. 

Requirements  of  the  Players.  In  return  for 
such  large  hospitality,  however,  the  actors  were  ex- 
pected to  render  their  parts  in  the  pageants  care- 
fully and  well.  In  all  cases  apparently  they  were 
required  to  commit  their  parts  to  memory,  and  a 
special  prompter  was  paid  "  for  beryng  of  pe 
Orygynall  "  and  correcting  them  in  case  they  for- 
got their  speeches.  But  if  they  forgot  too  often  or 
acted  too  poorly,  both  they  and  their  companies 
were  promptly  fined  for  the  dishonor  which  they 
had  brought  on  the  town, — they  by  their  pageant- 
masters,  and  their  companies  by  the  town  council. 
Accounts  are  extant  showing  that  companies  at 
Beverley  and  Coventry  were  fined  because  their 
players  did  not  know  their  parts;  and  in  the  Cov- 
entry weavers'  accounts  for  1450  and  1523  we  learn 
that  fines  varying  from  6d.  to  lod.  were  collected 
from  the  players.^ 

Women's  Parts.  These  actors,  it  is  to  be  re- 
marked, seem  to  have  been  men  only,  as  on  the 
Elizabethan  stage.  Here  again  our  records  are  un- 
fortunately defective,  and  we  are  able  to  speak  posi- 

^  Sharp,  Weavers*  Pageant,  p.  22. 


216      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

lively  of  the  custom  at  Coventry  only.  But  there 
certainly  the  players  seem  to  have  been  men  only. 
For  instance,  in  the  case  of  the  Coventry  weavers 
in  1450  we  find  three  of  their  players  deficient  in 
their  parts  in  some  way  and  being  fined  accordingly. 
Among  these  fines  we  notice  sixpence  "  Received  of 
Hew  Heyns,  pleynge  Anne,  for  hys  fyne  ".^  Like- 
wise, Dame  Procula,  Pilate's  wife  in  the  Coventry 
smiths'  play,  was  a  man;  for  in  1495  we  hear  of 
money  being  paid  to  '*  Ryngolds  man  Thomas  pt 
playtt  pylatts  wyfif ".  In  1498,  too,  we  find  2d. 
"  paid  to  pylatts  wyffe  for  his  wag's  ",  and  in  1490 
2j^rf.  "  for  a  quarte  of  wyne  for  heyrynge  of  proc- 
ula is  gowne  ".^  Perhaps  it  would  not  be  wholly 
safe  to  generalize  too  broadly  from  so  few  records 
as  we  have;  but  since  women's  parts  were  custom- 
arily taken  by  men  and  boys  on  the  later  Eliza- 
bethan stage,  and  since  we  have  indisputable  proof 
of  the  same  custom  in  the  above  records  of  the 
Coventry  plays,  it  seems  fair  to  conclude  that  the 
female  parts  on  the  Corpus  Christi  stage  were  prob- 
ably always  taken  by  men. 

Costumes.  Costumes  for  the  players  were 
procured  from  all  sorts  of  sources.  Sometimes 
they  were  bought ;  at  other  times  they  were  rented ; 
but  most  frequently  they  were  merely  borrowed 
from  the  clergy  and  the  neighboring  gentry.  At 
Lincoln  the  Guild  of  St.  Anne  was  accustomed  to 

7  Sharp,  Coventry  Weavers'  Pageant,  p.  22. 
*  Sharp,  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  30  and  m. 


ACTORS   AND    THEIR    COSTUMES      217 

procure  costumes  for  the  players  and  regularly  ap- 
pointed one  of  their  number  as  **  graceman  ",  the 
officer  who  was  responsible  for  getting  the  gar- 
ments together.  To  this  guild  *'  every  man  and 
woman  in  the  city,  being  able  ",  was  required  to  be- 
long at  an  expense  of  "  yearly  4^.,  man  and  wife,  at 
the  least  ".*  The  whole  story  of  the  Lincoln  cus- 
tom of  borrowing  costumes  is  told  in  a  note  for  the 
year  15 15,  when  it  was  "  agreed  that  whereas  divers 
garments  and  other  '  heriorments '  are  yearly  bor- 
rowed in  the  country  for  the  arraying  of  the 
pageants  of  St.  Anne's  guild,  but  now  the  knights 
and  gentlemen  are  afraid  with  the  plague  so  that 
the  *  graceman '  cannot  borrow  such  garments, 
every  alderman  shall  prepare  and  set  forth  in  the 
said  array  two  good  gowns,  and  every  sheriff  and 
every  chamberlain  a  gown,  and  the  persons  with 
them  shall  wear  the  same.  And  the  constables  are 
ordered  to  wait  upon  the  array  in  the  procession, 
both  to  keep  the  people  from  the  array,  and  also  to 
take  heed  of  such  as  wear  garments  in  the  same  ".^** 
And  six  years  later  we  find  the  players  borrowing  a 
"  gown  of  my  lady  '  Powes '  for  one  of  the  Maries, 
and  the  other  Mary  [was]  to  be  arrayed  in  the 
crimson  gown  of  velvet  that  belongeth  to  the  gild ; 
and  the  prior  of  St.  Katherine's  to  be  spoken  with 
to  have  such  *  honourments '  as  we  have  had  afore- 
time "." 

9  Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  Lincoln  MSS.  p.  27. 

10  Hist.  MSS  Comm.,  xiv,  App.  8,  p.  25. 

11  Ihid.,  p.  29. 


218      CORPUS    CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

Church  Vestments.  The  note  of  assurance  in 
the  borrowing  of  ''  honourments  "  from  the  prior 
of  St.  Katherine's  should  not  be  missed,  however; 
for  it  was  from  the  parish  churches  that  the  choic- 
est gold  embroidered  vestments  often  came.  And 
in  some  places,  where  the  churches  were  fortunate 
enough  to  possess  a  stock  of  '*  game  gear  ",  the 
thrifty  clergy  were  accustomed  to  let  the  regular 
players'  costumes  at  a  good  profit.  An  instance  of 
this  rental  of  church  vestments  is  to  be  found 
among  the  smiths'  accounts  at  Chester: — 

1569.    To  the  Clarke  for  the  lone  of  a  Cope,  an 

Altar  Cloth  and  Tunicle xd. 

1575.    For  Copes  and  Clothe xiid. 

To  John   Shawe   for  lone  of  a  Doctor's 

gowne  and  a  bode  for  our  eldest  Doctor    xiid. 

1566.    Gloves  for  the  Doctors  and  little  God  on 

Midsomer  eve vid.^^ 

Purchase  of  Costumes.  But  in  many  places, 
where  perhaps  the  parish  churches  could  not  fur- 
nish all  the  vestments  needed,  or  where  possibly  the 
clergy,  like  the  Rogers  at  Chester,  were  more 
opposed  to  the  "abomination  of  desolation  [defil- 
ing] with  so  highe  a  hand  ye  sacred  scriptures  of 
God ",  the  costumes  had  to  be  furnished  by  the 
guilds  themselves  and  preserved  from  year  to  year, 
with  possible  supplements  from  outside  sources. 
In  such  cases  the  playing  gear  seems  to  have  been 
turned  over  to  the  pageant-master  for  safe  keeping 

12  Morris,  Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and  Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  311  n. 


ACTORS   AND   THEIR    COSTUMES      219 

and  to  have  been  preserved  by  him  in  the  guild- 
room  of  the  company.  The  fullest  records  of  these 
"  plaing  garmands  "  come  from  Coventry,  and  it  is 
interesting  in  the  extreme  to  note  the  varied  pur- 
chases and  the  great  care  and  money  expended  for 
blue  silks  and  velvet  stockings,  for  darning  Christ's 
hose,  for  scouring  Mary's  crown,  mending  the 
devil's  head,  gilding  Judas's  beard,  and  for  pur- 
chases of  white  leather  for  God's  coat. 

Character  of  the  Costumes.  On  the  whole 
the  costumes  were  rich,  gaudy,  splendid,  and  ana- 
chronistic. Medieval  Englishmen  cared  or  knew 
nothing  about  historical  setting  and  costuming,  and 
what  was  good  enough  for  an  English  nobleman  or 
canon  was  considered  entirely  sufficient  for  Abra- 
ham, Annas  and  Caiaphas,  or  Herod.  Besides,  the 
audiences  were  interested  in  the  splendor  of  the 
spectacles,  not  in  the  historical  accuracy.  For  this 
reason  the  pageant-masters  could  require  their  play- 
ers always  to  wear  gloves,  no  matter  whether  the 
occasion  was  a  ceremonial  one  or  the  play  of  the 
rustic  shepherds  in  the  fields  around  Bethlehem,  or 
whether  it  was  Pilate  on  his  throne  in  Jerusalem 
or  Cain  plowing  in  the  field  with  his  oxen.  For 
this  reason,  too,  the  Coventry  smiths  could  borrow 
Lady  Powes's  red  velvet  gown  for  Mary  Mag- 
dalene. The  richer  the  gown,  the  more  splendid 
the  show,  no  matter  whether  the  costume  was  fitting 
to  the  particular  rank  of  the  personage  represented 
or  not. 


220      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

Adam  and  Eve.  Perhaps  of  all  the  costumes 
used  in  the  Corpus  Christi  plays  those  of  Adam 
and  of  Eve  have  been  most  discussed.  Warton 
thought  these  characters  were  represented  on  the 
stage  in  absolute  nudity.  "  In  these  Mysteries  ",  he 
says,  "  I  have  sometimes  seen  gross  and  open  ob- 
scenities. In  a  play  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment, Adam  and  Eve  are  both  exhibited  on  the 
stage  naked,  and  conversing  about  their  nakedness ; 
this  very  pertinently  introduces  the  next  scene,  in 
w^hich  they  have  coverings  of  fig-leaves.  This 
extraordinary  spectacle  was  beheld  by  a  numerous 
assembly  of  both  sexes  with  great  composure :  they 
had  the  authority  of  scripture  for  such  a  represen- 
tation, and  they  gave  matters  just  as  they  found 
them  in  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis.  It  would 
have  been  absolute  heresy  to  have  departed  from 
the  sacred  text  in  personating  the  primitive  appear- 
ance of  our  first  parents,  whom  the  spectators  so 
nearly  resembled  in  simplicity."  ^^ 

Warton  evidently  thought  the  character  of  Eve 
impersonated  by  a  woman.  It  was  not,  however; 
and  in  addition  to,  what  Chambers  calls  "  a  fine  a 
priori  improbability "  against  her  nakedness,  Mr. 
R.  B.  McKerrow  has  shown  with  almost  certainty 
that  the  players  must  have  used  "  breeks  "  in  order 
to  (if  we  may  so  term  it)  "  symbolize  "  their  nudity. 
Mr.  McKerrow  cites  first  a  passage  of  two  lines 
from  the  well-known  moral  treatise  of  Dominicu§ 

^^  History  of  English  Poetry,  i.  243-4. 


ACTORS    AND    THEIR    COSTUMES      221 

Mancinus,  De  Quatuor  Viirtutihus,  first  printed  in 
1484.— 

*  Histrio,  qui  in  scaenam  vadit,  sibi  subligar  aptat 
Ne  prodat  quidquid  lex  verecunda  tegit.' 

Mancinus'  book  was  translated  three  times  into  English 
in  the  course  of  the  sixteenth  century — once  into  prose  by 
an  unknown  translator  [The  englysshe  of  Mancyne  apon 
the  foure  cardynale  verities,  c.  1520],  and  twice  into  verse 
by  Alexander  Barclay  [Myrrour  of  good  maners,  c.  1523] 
and  George  Turberville  [A  plaine  Path  to  perfect  Vertue, 
1568]  respectively.  Two  of  these  translations  are  not 
without  interest.  The  first  renders  the  two  lines  in 
question  as  follows: 

*A  disgyser  yt  goeth  into  a  secret  corner  callyd  a  sene 
of  the  pleyinge  place  to  chaunge  his  rayment :  ordenyth 
hymselfe  a  breche:  the  whiche  at  ye  lest  wyse  he  kepith 
styll  apon  hym :  whatsomeuer  pagent  he  pleyith/ 

This  translation  is  interesting  for  the  use  of  the  word 
'scene'  apparently  in  the  sense  of  tiring-room,  but  Bar- 
clay's is  perhaps  rather  more  to  the  point. 

Expanding  his  original  somewhat  and  saying  that  even 
*a  dysgysed  lougler  or  vyle  iester  vnpure'  observes  a 
certain  amount  of  decency,  he  continues: 

*And  therfore  apperyng  all  naked  in  a  play 
If  his  parte  so  requyre  presented  for  to  be 
He  kepeth  his  foule  partes  hyd  in  a  brake  alway 
Nat  shewyng  what  nature  hath  set  in  pryuete.' 

I  presume  that  by  *  brake'  he  means  *breeks':  in  the 
reprint  of  the  Myrrour,  which  was  appended  to  the  edi- 
tion of  Barclay's  translation  of  Stultifera  Navis  in  1570, 


222      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

the  word  appears  as  'breech'.  It  seems  clear  that  the 
translator  must  have  been  thinking  of  the  Adam  and  Eve 
plays,  for  few,  if  any,  of  the  other  characters  would  re- 
quire to  be  represented  as  naked. 

Turberville's  version  is  only  of  interest  in  that  he 
seems  to  have  missed  the  point  of  the  original,  suggesting 
at  least  that  he  had  never  seen  a  play  of  this  sort  at  all. 
He  has: 

*  When  so  a  Player  comes  on  stage 
he  ties  his  trinkets  harde, 
For  feare  if  ought  should  fal,  the  plays 
Decorum  should  be  marde.'  i* 

It  may  be  added  that  the  "  2  cotes  &  a  payre  hosen 
for  Eve,  stayned  "  and  "  A  cote  &  hosen  for  Adam, 
Steyned  "  at  Norwich  were  probably  for  their  cos- 
tumes after  being  clothed  by  God  and  driven  out  of 
Eden.  The  "  2  hearys  for  Adam  &  Eve  ",  how- 
ever, would  seem  to  indicate  that  they  had  worn 
wigs  throughout  the  play. 

God.  Another  character  closely  associated 
with  those  of  Adam  and  of  Eve  was  God,  although 
comparatively  little  is  known  of  the  actual  costum- 
ing of  this  personage.  At  Norwich  in  the  grocers' 
Fall  of  Man  God  wore  a  mask  and  artificial  hair, 
and  at  Newcastle  in  the  slaters'  Abraham  and  Isaac 
he  and  his  angel  both  wore  crowns.  And  from  the 
Rogers  Breauarye  it  would  seem  that  at  Chester  he 
probably  had  his  face  gilded.  The  Rogers  quota- 
tion from  the  banes  of  the  plays  is  as  follows : 

^*  Modern  Language  Quarterly,  vi.  145-6. 


ACTORS   AND   THEIR    COSTUMES      223 

For  no  man  can  proportion  that  Godhead,  I 

saye, 
To  the  shape  of  man  face,  nose,  and  eyne ; 
But  sethence  ye  face  gilte  doth  disfigure  ye 

man  that  deme 
A  Clowdy  Coueringe  of  ye  man  a  voyce  only 

to  heare, 
And  not  God  in  shape  or  person  to  appeare.^*^ 

As  we  shall  see  later,  Christ,  who  was  also  called 
God,  had  his  costume  of  white  leather,  and  it  may 
be  possible  that  God  was  also  apparelled  in  this 
way. 

Noah.  Noah  and  his  wife  were  two  other  im- 
portant personages  in  the  Old  Testament  scenes, 
but  practically  no  information  as  to  their  costumes 
has  survived.  In  the  Wakefield  play  we  are  told 
that  Noah  wore  some  sort  of  coat  which  he  cast  off 
before  beginning  work  on  the  ark.  And  in  the 
Hull  mariners'  scene,  which,  however,  seems  not  to 
have  been  of  the  regular  Corpus  Christi  type  of 
play,  he  was  furnished  with  "  a  payr  of  new 
mytens "  and  a  coat  made  of  three  skins.  How 
Noah's  wife,  "  Uxor  Noe  ",  was  arrayed  we  do  not 
know ;  but  that  she  must  have  been  a  popular  char- 
acter may  be  judged  from  the  speeches  given  her  in 
the  plays.  Indeed,  in  several  of  the  plays  she  seems 
to  have  been  little  more  than  a  clown,  and,  being  a 
man  as  she  was,  boxing  her  husband's  ears,  refus- 
es Furnivall,  Digby  Mysteries,  p.  xx. 


224      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

ing  to  enter  the  ark  of  her  own  accord,  and  requir- 
ing her  husband  and  sons  to  force  her  in — all  this 
before  a  crowd  of  gaping,  ale-drinking,  and  apple- 
eating  commons, — she  must  have  created  an  im- 
mense amount  of  fun.  That  she  was  thus  looked 
upon  as  a  clown  is  very  forcibly  emphasized  in  the 
York  play  when  she  inquires  of  her  husband: 

But  Noye,  where  are  nowe  all  oure  kynne, 
And  company e  we  knewe  be- fore? 
Noe.    Dame,  all  ar  drowned,  late  be  thy  dyne. 

— 11.  269-71. 

In  other  words,  shut  your  mouth ! 

The  Devil.  Possibly  the  most  popular  char- 
acter on  the  Corpus  Christi  stage,  however,  was  the 
Devil ;  certainly  he  was  so  if  we  except  Christ.  In 
fact,  the  Devil  and  his  lively  troop  of  under-demons 
seem  to  have  furnished  most  of  the  comedy  in  many 
of  the  plays.  And  no  doubt  their  various  noises, 
strange  gestures,  unnatural  contortions,  and  queer 
costumes  must  have  been  the  cause  of  much  excited 
laughter  among  the  vulgar  spectators.  A  good 
example  of  this  comical  side  of  the  Devil's  char- 
acter in  the  Corpus  Christi  plays  is  to  be  seen  at 
the  beginning  of  the  York  smiths'  Temptation  of 
Jesus,  where  Diabolus  in  the  midst  of  the  throng 
about  the  pageant-wagon  suddenly  gains  the  atten- 
tion of  the  audience  by  exclaiming : 

Diab.    Make  rome  be-lyve,  and  late  me  gang, 
Who  makis  here  all  pis  prang? 


ACTORS   AND   THEIR    COSTUMES      225 

High  you  hense !  high  myght  50U  hang 

right  with  a  roppe. 

I  drede  me  pat  I  dwelle  to  lang 

to  do  a  jape. — 11.   1-6. 


In  other  words,  we  may  imagine  that  the  pageant- 
wagon  has  just  moved  into  its  place  at  the  station 
and  that  the  Devil,  as  a  clever  device  for  gaining  the 
attention  of  the  audience,  has  purposely  dropped 
off  the  wagon  among  the  crowd,  where  he  has  been 
chasing  timid  small  boys  and  pretending  to  catch 
them  and  take  them  off  to  hell.  Then  when  all  is 
ready  on  the  wagon  and  Christ  is  in  his  place  on  the 
mountain,  Diabolus  suddenly  rushes  toward  the 
wagon,  climbs  in,  and  takes  his  place  beside  Christ. 
The  "  Adam  "  Play.  Such  a  custom  of  making 
excursions  through  the  audience  would  be  strictly 
in  accordance  with  the  traditional  stage  habits  of 
the  Devil,  an  example  of  which  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
Anglo-Norman  Adam,  where  the  devils  carry  Adam 
and  Eve  to  hell.  The  stage-direction  there  reads: 
"Then  shall  come  the  devil  and  three  or  four  devils 
with  him,  carrying  in  their  hands  chains  and  iron 
fetters,  which  they  shall  put  on  the  necks  of  Adam 
and  Eve.  And  some  shall  push  and  others  pull 
them  to  hell ;  and  hard  by  hell  shall  be  other  devils 
ready  to  meet  them,  who  shall  hold  high  revel  at 
their  fall.  And  certain  other  devils  shall  point 
them  out  as  they  come,  and  shall  snatch  them  up 
and  carry  them  into  hell ;  and  there  shall  they  make 


226     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

a  great  smoke  arise,  and  call  aloud  to  each  other 
with  glee  in  their  hell,  and  clash  their  pots  and 
kettles,  that  they  may  be  heard  without.  And  after 
a  little  delay  the  devils  shall  come  out  and  run 
about  the  stage ;  but  some  shall  remain  in  hell  ".^® 
Costumes  of  the  Devil.  Numerous  pictures  of 
the  Devil  have  come  down  to  us  from  medieval 
times,  generally  picturing  him  with  horns  on  his 
head,  a  long  crooked  snout,  and  a  tail.  He  is 
usually  clad  in  black  and  carries  a  horn,  a  great 
club,  or  some  kind  of  staff  with  curved  hooks  on 
the  end.  In  the  Newcastle  shipwrights'  Noah's 
Ark  the  Devil  swears  by  his  crooked  snout,^^  which 
indicates  that  some  kind  of  mask  must  have  been 
worn ;  and  in  Gammer  Gtirton's  Needle  Hodge  gives 
an  excellent  description  of  what  one  may  suppose  to 
have  been  the  old  Corpus  Christi  devil : — 

[Hodge]   By  the  masse,  ich  saw  him  of  late 

cal  vp  a  great  blacke  deuill ! 
O,  the  knaue  cryed  "  ho !  ho !  "  He  roared,  and 

he  thundred. 
And  yead  bene  here,  cham  sure  yould  murrenly 

ha  wondred!  .  .  . 
Gammer.    But,  Hodge,  had  he  no  homes,  to 

pushe  ? 

18  Chambers's  translation  from  the  Latin  stage-direc- 
tions after  1.  590.  Compare  Grass,  Das  Adamsspiel,  pp. 
31-2. 

17  Compare  Waterhouse,  Non-Cycle  Mystery  Plays,  p. 
23,  1.  127. 


ACTORS   AND   THEIR   COSTUMES      227 

Hodge.     As  long  as  your  two  armes !     Saw  ye 

neuer  Fryer  Rushe 
Painted  on  a  cloth,  with  a  side  long  cowes 

tayle, 
And  crooked  clouen  feete,  and  many  a  hoked 

nayle? 
For   al   the   world,   if   I   shuld   iudg,   chould 

recken  him  his  brother. 
Loke,  euen  what  face  Frier  Rush  had,  the  deuil 

had  such  another !  ^® 

All  this  evidence  is  corroborated  by  entries  in  the 
Coventry  accounts  as  given  by  Sharp.  Some  of 
the  items  to  be  noted  are  as  follows:  "  145 1. — Itm 
payd  for  pe  demons  garment  makyng  &  p[e]  stof 
.  ,  .  vs.  \\]d.  ob. ;  Itm  payd  for  collyryng  of  pe 
same  garment  .  .  .  viijrf.;  1494. — Itm  paid  to 
Wattis  for  dressyng  of  the  devells  hede  .  .  .  viijd.; 
1498. — It'  paid  for  peynttyng  of  the  demones  hede; 
1567. — Itm  payd  for  a  stafe  for  the  demon  .  .  . 
iiijrf.;^®  Itm  payde  for  mendynge  pe  devells  cote 
and  makyng  the  devells  heade  .  .  .  iiij^.  vjd.;  Itm 
payd  for  a  yard  of  canvas  for  pe  devells  malle  &  for 
makyng  . . .  \\\]d. ;  Itm  payd  for  payntyng  pe  dev- 
ells clubbe;^°  1540. — It'  for  peyntyng  &  makyng 
new  ij  damons  beds;  1556. — payd  for  a  demons 
face  .  .  .  ij.y.;  1560. — payd  to  Cro  for  mendyng 
the  devells  cottes  .  .  .  xxd.;  1568. — payd  for  mak- 

18  III.  2:  12-22. 

1^  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  31. 

2o/&,d.,  p.  56. 


228     CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

yng  the  de veils  hose  .  .  .  vnjd.;  payd  for  canvas 
for  one  of  the  devells  hose  .  .  .  xjrf.;  payd  for 
makyng  the  ij  devells  facys  .  .  .  xs.;  payd  for 
makyng  a  pay  re  of  hose  w^t.  heare  .  .  .  xxijrf.; 
payd  for  iij/f.  of  heare  .  .  .  ij^.  v'jd.;  1572. — It* 
pd  for  ij  pound  of  heare  for  the  demons  cotts  & 
hose  and  mending  ".^^ 

From  these  entries  we  see  that  the  Devil  in  one 
instance  had  a  club  made  of  canvas,  painted  and 
possibly  stuffed  w^ith  v^^ool,  as  was  Pilate's  (which 
we  shall  notice  later)  ;  and  Sharp  remarks  that  from 
the  many  entries  made  for  painting  and  repairing 
the  Devil's  mall,  "  we  may  presume  that  by  way  of 
exciting  merriment,  he  laid  about  him  during  the 
time  of  performance  on  such  persons  as  were  within 
his  reach,  as  well  as  in  those  instances  where  it  was 
required  in  the  play  ".  In  the  other  instance  we 
notice  that  the  Devil  had  a  "  staf e  ",  which  probably 
was  the  hooked  staff  referred  to  above.  From 
these  citations  it  is  also  certain  that  the  Devil  in 
some  cases  wore  a  false  face;  in  others,  an  entire 
false  head.  This  was  of  course  the  easiest  method 
of  presenting  the  crooked  snout  and  the  well-known 
horns.  Likewise,  several  pounds  of  hair  were 
bought  for  his  coat  and  hose,  with  the  intent  prob- 
ably of  representing  him  as  fearfully  as  possible. 
At  Norwich,  too,  where  "  a  cote  wt  hosen  &  tayle 
for  ye  serpente,  steyned,  wt  a  wt  heare  ",  was  found 
among  the  properties  of  the  grocers'  company  in 

21  Loc.  cit.,  p.  69. 


ACTORS   AND   THEIR   COSTUMES      229 

1565,  he  seems  to  have  been  adorned  with  hair;  but 
in  this  case  he  seems  to  have  been  habited,  not  in  his 
usual  costume,  but  in  one  especially  made  to  repre- 
sent the  snake  in  the  garden  of  Eden.  Sharp,  how- 
ever, prints  a  cut  picturing  a  hairy  horned  devil  and 
two  feathered  fellows  in  one  of  his  various  hell- 
pictures,  but  the  present  writer  has  not  met  with  any 
other  references  which  indicate  that  the  Devil  was 
hairy.  The  reference  in  the  banes  to  the  Chester 
plays  of  "  the  devill  in  his  fethers,  all  ragger  and 
rente  "  is  too  well  known  to  need  comment. 

Souls.  Other  characters  often  closely  asso- 
ciated with  the  devils  were  the  souls  of  those  sup- 
posed to  be  dead,  of  whom  there  were  usually  six, 
three  "  savyd "  and  three  "  dampnyd ".  From 
various  references  here  and  there  in  the  plays,  as 
well  as  from  the  Coventry  account-books,  it  seems 
that  the  damned  souls  were  dressed  in  black  and  the 
saved  ones  in  white.  Lucifer's  expression  noted 
above,  "  Now  I  am  a  devyl  ful  derke,  that  was  an 
aungelle  bryht ",  would  indicate  this  difference,  as 
would  the  cry  of  the  fallen  angels  in  the  Wakefield 
Creation: — 

Now  ar  we  waxen  blak  as  any  coyll, 
and  vgly,  tatyrd  as  a  foyll. — 11.  136-7. 

In  Henry  V  (11.  3:  42-4),  too,  the  Boy  seems  to 
refer  to  the  same  custom  of  the  damned  souls  being 
clothed  in  black  when  he  says :     "Do  you  not  re- 


230      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

member,  a'  saw  a  flea  stick  upon  Bardolph's  nose, 
and  a'  said  it  was  a  black  soul  burning  in  hell-fire  "  ? 
And  the  evidence  from  the  drapers'  accounts  at 
Coventry  leaves  no  doubt  that  this  was  the  custom 
in  that  city.  Sharp  prints  the  following  from  their 
accounts:  "  1536. — Itm  for  mendyng  the  white  & 
the  blake  soules  cotes  .  .  .  viijaf;  1537. — Itm  for  v 
elnes  of  Canvas  for  shyrts  &  hose  for  the  blakke 
soules,  at  \d.  the  elne  .  .  .  V]s.  ]d;  Itm  for  coloryng 
and  makyng  the  same  cots  .  .  .  ixo?;  Itm  for  mak- 
yng  &  mendynge  of  the  blakke  soules  hose  .  .  .  v]d; 
Itm  for  a  payre  of  newe  hose  &  mendyng  of  olde 
for  the  whyte  soules  .  .  .  xviijc?;  1543. — It'  p'd  if  or 
the  mendyng  of  the  whytt  soils  kotts  wt  the  ij  skyns 
pt.  went  to  them  .  .  .  xvjc?;  1556. — p'd  for  canvas 
for  the  sollys  cottys  xix  ellys  .  .  .  xiiijj  n]d;  p'd 
for  ix  elys  of  canvas  made  yellow  .  .  .  xijc?;  p'd 
for  X  elys  of  canvas  made  blacke  .  .  .  xc?;  payd 
for  ij  pessys  of  yallow  bokeram  .  .  .  vij^  w]d;  payd 
for  iiij  yards  of  Rede  bokaram  .  .  .  \]s  viijc?;  payd 
for  makyng  the  sollys  cotts  .  .  .  y]s  viijJ;  p'd  for 
blakyng  the  sollys  fassys;  1565. — p'd  for  ix  yards 
&  a  halfe  of  bukram  for  the  Sowles  coates  .  .  . 
vijj;  1567. — p'd  for  iij  elnes  of  yelloo  Canvas  .  .  . 
ij^  X(i;  It'  for  cohering  the  solles  cotts  yelloo  .  .  . 
■KV]d'\^^  From  which  it  appears  that  the  white  or 
saved  souls  were  habited  in  white  coats  and  hose 
and  that  these  coats  were  made  of  skins.  In  the 
case   of   the   black   or   damned   souls,   they   were 

22  Lor.  cit.,  p.  70. 


ACTORS    AND    THEIR    COSTUMES      231 

dressed  in  coats  and  hose  of  black  buckram  or  can- 
vas and  had  their  faces  blackened.  In  later  years, 
however,  their  costumes  came  to  be  black,  yellow, 
and  red  parti-colored,  a  device  used  possibly  to  im- 
press the  spectators  all  the  more  forcibly  with  the 
horror  of  their  abode.  The  saved  and  lost  souls 
were  probably  never  more  than  minor  characters  in 
any  of  the  plays.  Certainly  this  was  true  in  the 
Coventry  drapers'  play,  if  we  may  judge  from  the 
amounts  paid  them,  their  fees  usually  being  about 
half  those  of  the  principal  characters. 

Angels.  The  costumes  for  angels  seem  to 
have  been  as  various  as  were  the  personages  who 
represented  these  characters.  One  purpose,  how- 
ever, may  be  said  to  have  governed  the  designing  of 
their  apparel:  to  make  it  emblematical  of  the 
heavenly  kingdom,  to  have  it  represent  purity  and 
meekness.  This  was  Mary's  statement,  rather 
crudely  expressed,  to  the  angel  in  the  Digby  Mary 
Magdalene:  — 

[ijus  angelus.] 

In  a  mentyll  of  whyte  xall  be  ower  araye ; 
The  dores  xall  opyn  a-jens  vs  be  ryth. 

Mary. 

O,  gracyus  god,  now  I  vndyrstond ! 
thys  clothyng  of  whyte  is  tokenyng  of  meke- 
ness.2* 

23Furnivall,  Digby  Mysteries,  p.  115. 


2Z2      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

In  the  cappers'  play  at  Coventry  the  angels*  cos- 
tumes seem  to  have  come  from  one  of  the  churches ; 
for  we  find  entries  "  for  vv^aschyng  pe  angells  albs  " 
and  "  for  mendynge  pe  angells  surplisses  &  v^assh- 
yng".^*  In  the  Beverley  Fall  of  Man  the  angel 
wore  wings;  in  the  Norwich  grocers'  pageant  he 
wore  a  *'  Cote  &  over  hoses  of  Apis  Skynns  " ;  and 
in  the  weavers'  play  at  Coventry  and  in  the  Abra- 
ham and  Isaac  at  Newcastle  the  angels,  like  God, 
wore  crowns.  Sharp's  records  of  the  angels'  cos- 
tumes in  the  Coventry  drapers'  play,  where  there 
were  four  angels,  is  as  follows:  "  1538. — Itm  for 
makyng  an  angells,  scytte  [suit?]  .  .  .xijc?.  ;i540. — 
Itm  for  peyntyng  &  makyng  new  iiij  peire  of  angells 
wyngs ;  1556. — payd  for  iiij  pere  of  angyllys  wyngys 
.  .  .  i]s.  Y\i]d.;  payd  for  iiij  dyadymes  .  .  .  ij^. 
vijc?.;  payd  for  vj  goldyn  skynnes  .  .  .  \s}^  Here 
again  it  is  noticeable  that  the  angels  wore  wings  and 
diadems,  and  Sharp  thinks  that  the  golden  skins 
were  for  the  coats.  "  No  other  personages  ",  he 
says,  "  seem  to  have  so  strong  a  claim  to  the  six 
Golden  skins :  they  were  certainly  not  used  for  any 
part  of  God's  dress;  and  in  the  original  entry  this 
item  immediately  follows  that  of  the  four  Diadems." 

Christ.  The  most  important  personage  in  the 
Corpus  Christi  plays  as  a  whole  undoubtedly  was 
Christ,  called  also  God.  The  importance  of  this 
character  is  shown  by  the  amounts  paid  the  actors 

24  Sharp,  Coventry  Mysteries,  pp.  55-6. 
26  Ibid.,  p.  71. 


ACTORS    AxND    THEIR    COSTUMES      233 

who  impersonated  him,  by  the  stories  that  have 
come  down  to  us  about  the  scenes  in  which  he  took 
part,  and  by  a  study  of  the  plays  themselves.  In 
the  Chester  blacksmiths'  Purification  of  Mary, 
where  Christ  is  only  a  child,  we  find  sixteen  pence 
paid  "  the  lytell  God  "  in  1551,  twelve  pence  in  1554, 
and  sixteen  pence  again  in  1567.  By  the  Coventry 
weavers,  where  he  is  also  a  child,  we  find  four  pence 
paid  in  155 1  "  to  the  woman  for  her  chyld  ",  and  in 
1553  the  same  amount  again  "  to  the  letell  chylde".^^ 
But  in  the  Coventry  drapers'  Doomsday,  where 
Christ  is  a  man  and  is  the  most  important  personage 
in  the  play,  his  fee  in  1538  was  3^.  4d.  against  i.y.  6d. 
to  the  next  highest  paid  actor. 

Of  the  importance  and  the  power  of  this  character 
on  his  audiences  Sharp  relates  an  interesting  story 
from  Disraeli's  MS.  Life  of  John  Shaw,  Vicar  of 
Rotherham,  inserted  in  his  Curiosities  of  Literature. 
Says  the  Vicar,  who  was  preaching  on  one  occasion 
at  a  place  called  Cartmel  in  Lancashire :  "  I  found 
a  very  large  spacious  church,  scarce  any  seats  in  it ; 
a  people  very  ignorant,  and  yet  willing  to  learn ;  so 
I  had  frequently  some  thousands  of  hearers.  I 
catechised  in  season  and  out  of  season.  The 
churches  were  so  thronged  at  nine  in  the  morning, 
that  I  had  much  ado  to  get  to  the  pulpit.  One  day, 
an  old  man  of  sixty,  sensible  enough  in  other  things, 
and  living  in  the  parish  of  Cartmel,  coming  to  me  on 
some  business,  I  told  him  that  he  belonged  to  my 

'•  Sharp,  Weavers'  Pageant,  p.  22. 


234      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

care  and  charge,  and  I  desired  him  to  be  informed 
in  his  knowledge  of  religion.  I  asked  him  how- 
many  Gods  there  were?  He  said  he  knew  not.  I 
informing  him,  asked  again  how  he  thought  to  be 
saved?  He  answered  he  could  not  tell.  Yet 
thought  that  was  a  harder  question  than  the  other. 
I  told  him  that  the  way  to  salvation  was  by  Jesus 
Christ;  God-man,  who,  as  he  was  man,  shed  his 
blood  for  us  on  the  cross,  &c.  Oh  Sir,  said  he,  I 
think  I  heard  of  that  man  you  speak  of  once  in  a 
play  at  Kendall,  called  Corpus  Christ's  play,  where 
there  was  a  man  on  a  tree,  and  blood  run  down,  &c. 
And  afterwards  he  professed  he  could  not  remem- 
ber that  he  ever  heard  of  salvation  by  Jesus,  but  in 
that  play." 

Christ's  Costumes.  Christ's  costume  seems  to 
have  been  more  or  less  uniform.  In  the  York  pin- 
ners' Crucifixion  we  have  a  "  kirtill  ",  a  "  coote  ", 
and  a  "  mantell "  referred  to  as  his  apparel,  and  in 
the  corresponding  play  at  Chester,  a  coat,  a  kirtle, 
and  a  "  paulle  ".  In  the  Coventry  weavers'  accounts 
for  1564  payments  were  made  for  "  payntyng  of 
Jesus  heade  ",  probably  gilt,  and  for  darning  Christ's 
hose ;  and  Sharp  adds  the  following  items  relative  to 
his  costume  in  the  Coventry  smiths'  and  cappers' 
plays:  "  145 1. — It'  payed  for  vj  skynnys  of  whit- 
leder  to  godds  garment  .  .  .  xviijc?.;  It'  payed  for 
makyng  of  the  same  garment  .  .  .  xd.;  1553. — It' 
payd  for  v  schepskens  for  gods  coot  &  for  makyng 
.  .  .  iij^.;  1498. — It'  payd  for  mendyng  a  cheverel 


ACTORS   AND    THEIR    COSTUMES      235 

for  god  and  for  sowyng  of  gods  kote  of  leddur  and 
for  makyng  of  the  hands  to  the  same  kote  .  .  . 
xijd.;  1490. — It'  a  cheverel  gyld  for  Ihesus;  1565. — 
pd  for  payntyng  &  gyldyng  gods  cote;  pd  for  a 
gyrdyll  for  god  .  .  .  iijfl^.;  1501. — It'  pd  if  or  a 
newe  sudere  for  god  .  .  .  vijd.;^^  1556. — payde 
for  vij  skynnes  for  godys  cote;  1557. — paid  for  a 
peyre  of  gloves  for  god  .  .  .  i']d.;  1562. — payd  for 
a  Cote  for  God  and  for  a  pay  re  of  gloves  .  .  .  iij^. ; 
1565. — p'd  for  iij  yards  of  Redde  Sendall  for  God 
,  .  .  xxd  "}^  The  use  of  the  "  Redde  Sendall "  is 
not  clear,  but  from  the  other  entries  it  is  evident 
that  Christ's  hair  was  gilded  and  that  he  w^ore  a 
coat  of  sheepskin  leather  w^hich  w^as  sometimes 
white,  sometimes  gilded,  and  to  which  the  hands 
were  attached.  The  "  sudere  "  was  probably  the 
legendary  veronica  on  which  his  image  was  painted 
and  may  or  may  not  have  been  carried  by  him. 

"Anima  Christi."  Another,  and  yet  the  same, 
character  comes  up  for  discussion  next,  the  Spirit 
of  Christ,  Anima  Christi,  or  Spirit  of  God,  about 
which  Sharp  was  strangely  confused  in  his  Dis- 
sertation, The  four  items  which  he  prints  are  as 
follows :  "  Itm  payd  for  pe  spret  of  Gods  cote 
.  .  .  ij^;  Itm  payd  for  pe  makyng  of  pe  same 
cote  .  .  .  viijJ;  Itm  payd  for  ij  yardes  and  halfe 
off  bockram  to  make  the  spirits  cote  .  .  .  \]s  ]d; 
Itm  payd  for  makynge  the  same  cote  .  .  .  viijrf  ".^' 

27  Loc.  cit.,  p.  26. 

28  Ihid.,  p.  69. 

29  Ibid.,  p.  54. 


236     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

With  regard  to  this  character  Sharp  says :  "  No 
article  of  dress  explicitly  intended  for  this  char- 
acter [Christ,  or  God]  appears  in  the  Accounts. 
There  is  a  charge  for  painting,  inter  alia,  p[e] 
Rattel,  pe  Spade  &  ij  crossys  &  hell  mowythe " 
and  also  an  item  of  expences  for  boards  used  about 
the  Sepulchre  side  of  the  Pageant  ....  I  once 
hesitated  in  determining  whether  this  character  [the 
Spirit  of  God]  represented  God  the  Father,  or  was 
meant  for  our  Saviour  after  his  resurrection;  but 
a  very  ingenious  friend  says : — '  I  suspect  the 
"  Spirit  of  God  "  to  mean  the  Holy  Ghost.  This 
third  person  in  the  Trinity  was  not  always  repre- 
sented as  a  dove,  but  occasionally  as  a  human  figure, 
as  some  old  prints  demonstrate '."  Sharp's  friend, 
however,  seems  to  have  been  more  ingenious  than 
reasonable  in  his  suggestion;  for  a  study  of  the 
Coventry  account-books  shows  that  the  scenes  rep- 
resented by  the  cappers  were  the  descent  into  hell, 
the  setting  of  the  watch,  the  resurrection,  and  the 
appearance  to  Mary  Magdalene  and  the  travelers, 
in  none  of  which  is  any  spirit  of  God  the  Father 
needed.  On  the  contrary,  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
Anima  Christi,  is  certainly  needed  in  the  harrowing 
of  hell,  and  would  be  perfectly  appropriate  in  the 
others.  Moreover,  in  none  of  the  plays  that  have 
come  down  to  us  do  we  have  any  use  of  the  spirit  of 
God  the  Father,  the  Holy  Ghost,  while  in  the  De- 
scent into  Hell  of  the  so-called  Ludus  Coventrics 
we  do  have  an  Anima  Christi.     Hence  it  seems 


ACTORS   AND   THEIR   COSTUMES      237 

reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  buckram  garments 
referred  to  above  were  meant  for  the  Spirit  of 
Christ;  and  since  no  other  article  of  dress  was 
purchased  for  Christ  himself,  it  may  not  be  im- 
possible that  the  Anima  Christi  appeared  instead 
of  the  living  Christ  in  all  the  cappers'  scenes. 

Herod.  The  Corpus  Christi  Herod  is  known 
to  all  of  us  from  Hamlet's  description  of  his  ranting 
manner :  "  O,  it  offends  me  to  the  soul  to  hear 
a  robustious  periwig-pated  fellow  tear  a  passion 
to  tatters,  to  very  rags,  to  split  the  ears  of  the 
groundlings,  who,  for  the  most  part,  are  capable 
of  nothing  but  inexplicable  dumb-shows  and  noise : 
I  would  have  such  a  fellow  whipped  for  o'erdoing 
Termagant ;  it  out-herods  Herod  ".  And  that  Ham- 
let's description  is  not  overdrawn  let  the  following 
from  the  Chester  Adoration  of  the  Magi  bear  wit- 
ness : — 


For  I  am  king  of  all  mankinde, 

I  byd,  I  beat,  I  loose,  I  bynde, 

I  maister  the  Moone ;  take  this  in  mynde 

that  I  am  most  of  mighte. 

I  am  the  greatest  aboue  degree, 
that  is  or  was  or  euer  shall  be. 
the  Sonne  it  dare  not  shyne  on  me 
if  I  byd  hym  goe  downe. — 11.  169-76. 


238     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

The  importance  of  Herod's  character  in  the  plays 
is  shown  by  the  large  amount  spent  on  his  costumes 
and  by  the  sums  he  received  for  his  work,  the  per- 
former receiving  as  much  as  35.  Sd.  for  his  services. 
Some  of  the  garments  bought  for  him  by  the  Coven- 
try smiths  are  as  follows :  "  1477. — It'  to  a  peynter 
for  peyntyng  the  ffauchon  &  herods  face  .  .  . 
xd;  1490. — A  '  fawchon'  a  *  septur '  and  '  a  Creste 
for  heroude';  1501. — Itm  ffor  vj  jards  satten  iij 
quatrs  ....  xvj^  xc? ;  Itm  for  v  jardus  off  blowe 
bokeram  .  .  .  ij^  xjc?;  It'  pd  ffor  makyng  off 
herodus  gone  .  .  .  xvrf;  1547. — Pd  to  John  Croo 
for  mendyng  of  herrods  hed  and  a  myter  and  other 
thyngs  .  .  .  'i]s;  1489. — It'  paid  ffor  a  gowen  to 
Arrode  ....  vijs  injd;  It'  paid  ffor  peyntyng 
&  steynyng  ther  off  .  ,  .  vj^  iiijc?/  It'  payd  ffor 
Aroddes  garment  peynttyng  pt  he  went  a  prossayon 
in  ...  .  xxd;  1494. — It'  payd  for  iij  platis  to 
Heroddis  Crest  of  Iron  .  .  .  vjd;  It'  payd  for 
a  paper  of  Aresdyke  [tinsel]  .  .  .  xijd ;  It'  payd  to 
Hatfeld  for  dressyng  of  Herods  Creste  .... 
xiiijrf;  1499. — It'  payd  to  John  Hatfelde  for  colours 
and  gold  foyle  &  sylver  foyle  for  pe  crest  and  for 
pe  fawchon  '\^° 

Little  comment  is  needed  on  these  entries.  Herod 
in  one  year,  it  is  evident,  wore  a  satin  gown,  prob- 
ably blue.  Sharp  tells  us,  for  which  the  sum  of 
nearly  a  pound  was  paid ;  in  other  years  his  gown 
was  painted  or  stained ;  he  also  wore  a  false  face 
80  Sharp,  Coventry  Mysteries,  pp.  28-9. 


ACTORS   AND   THEIR   COSTUMES      239 

and  hair  and  a  crest  adorned  with  gold  foil ;  and  he 
carried  a  falchion  which  was  also  gilt.  Leach  adds 
that  at  Beverley  Herod  always  appeared  with  a 
black  face,^^  but  for  this  assertion  the  present 
writer  has  not  been  able  to  find  any  further  justifi- 
cation than  that  the  mercers  in  that  town  played 
"  Black  Herod  ". 

Pilate.  A  character  of  equal  or  even  greater  im- 
portance than  Herod  was  Pilate,  whom  Mr.  C.  M. 
Gayley  has  chosen  to  interpret  as  something  of  a 
clown^^,  though  there  seems  to  be  no  justification 
in  the  plays  for  this  view.  The  grounds  for  Mr. 
Gayley's  suggestion  seem  to  be  that  Pilate  carried 
a  mall,  or  club,  and  that  some  sort  of  leather  balls, 
the  use  of  which  we  do  not  certainly  know,  were 
bought  for  him.  Let  us  observe  the  entries  which 
refer  to  Pilate  in  the  Coventry  smiths'  and  cappers' 
accounts :  "  1480. —  pd  for  mendyng  of  pilats  hat 
.  .  .  iiijc?;  1494. — It'  paid  for  braband  to  pylatts 
hate  wd  &  for  canvas  .  .  .  \]d  ob. ;  1490. — It'  a 
Cloke  for  pilatte  [and]  Itm  a  hatt  for  pilatte  re- 
paired ;^^  [A  green(?)  cloak  for  Pilate  and]  a 
skeane  of  grene  silke  [to  mend  it]  ;  Makyng  of 
pylatts  malle  .  .  .  xxijc?. ;  A  new  malle  .  .  .  xxc?; 
pd  Richard  Hall  for  makyng  pylates  clubbe  .  .  . 
xiijrf;  pd  ffor  ij  pounde  &  halfe  off  woole  ffor  the 
same  clubbe  .  .  .  xf/ ;  pd  for  balles  for  pylatt  .  .  . 

81  In  Furnivall  Miscellany,  pp.  213-14. 

82  Plays  of  Our  Forefathers,  p.  106. 
*8  Sharp,  Loc.  cit.,  p.  32. 


240      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

Hid;  lether  for  balles  .  .  .  ijd;  pd  for  makyng  of 

xvj  balls  &  for  ij  skyns  of  lether  .  .  .  vrf;  pd  for  a 

skyn  for  balls,  for  makyng  &  sowyng  .  .  .  vd;  pd 

for  balls   &   for  mendyng  of  pylatts  cloobe  .  .  . 

iiijrf;  p'd  for  a  payre  of  gloves  for  pylate  .  .  .  mjd; 

p'd  for  assyden  for  pilat  head  .  .  .  i'jd;  p'd  for 

canvas  .  .  .  vjc?;  &  the  makyng  of  pylats  doblet 

.  .  .  xvjd^V* 

From  these  items  we  see  that  Pilate  at  various 

times   wore   a   cloak,   which   was   probably  green 

(since  green  silk  thread  was  bought  for  mending 

it),  a  doublet,  gloves,  and  a  gilded  wig,  and  that  he 

carried  a  mall,  the  head  of  which  was  made  of 

leather  stuffed  with  wool  and  fixed  on  a  wooden 

handle.     This  leather  head  was  seventeen  inches 

long.  Sharp  tells  us,  and  Mr.  Gayley  adds  of  its  use : 

"  His  [Pilate's]  mall  .  .  .  served  partly  for  a  sign 

of  authority  but  more  for  beating  his  companions 

and  the  public.    The  balls  were  perhaps  the  insignia 

of  office;  but  more  likely,  since  they,  too,  were  of 

leather,  they  served  for  interludes  of  juggling.    The 

margin  of  the  Chester  plays  is  studded  with  stage 

directions  such  as  *  fluryshe  ',  *  cast  up  ',  '  sworde  ', 

when  ranting  kings  like  Balaak  and  Herod  are  on 

the  boards.     The  *  caste-up '  is  hardly  of  anything 

internal:  it  may  be  of  the  staff  (sceptre)  or  of  the 

balls.    Such  nonsense  seemed  requisite  to  offset  the 

intense  and  unfamiliar  strain  of  gazing  upon  royalty 

even  though  illusionary^** ".    This,  however,  seems 

3*  Sharp,  Loc.  cit.,  pp.  501. 
^^  Loc.  cit.,  p.  106. 


ACTORS   AND   THEIR   COSTUMES      241 

rather  a  strained  delineation  of  Pilate's  character, 
especially  since  none  of  the  plays  show  Pilate  to 
be  of  the  ranting  Herod  type.  Moreover,  a  study 
of  the  Chester  plays,  to  which  Mr.  Gayley  refers, 
shows  that  none  of  the  stage-directions  which  sug- 
gested jugglery  to  him,  refer  to  Pilate  at  all;  and 
it  might  easily  be  admitted  that  the  club  was  made 
of  leather  and  stuffed  with  wool  for  the  purpose 
of  striking  those  under  Pilate's  authority  without 
requiring  us  to  regard  him  as  a  clown;  for  real 
kings  and  queens  in  even  later  times  are  known  to 
have  shown  even  more  violent  manifestations  of 
temper  than  merely  striking  their  courtiers.  The 
present  writer,  to  be  sure,  would  like  to  hold  this 
view  of  Pilate's  character,  for  it  adds  a  new  trait 
to  his  nature;  but  the  facts  seem  against  it.  The 
Chester  stage-directions  implying  jugglery  do  not 
refer  to  Pilate  at  all;  the  mall  of  itself  would  not 
give  him  the  character  of  a  clown,  especially  since 
the  whole  tenor  of  the  play  is  against  this  view; 
and  the  balls  of  which  so  much  has  been  made  seem 
to  have  been  nothing  more  than  the  little  leather 
balls  sewed  on  the  leather  club.  In  the  picture 
which  Sharp  has  given  us  of  this  mall  only  three 
of  these  balls  are  left;  but  the  club  was  then  in  a 
very  dilapidated  condition,  as  a  glance  at  the  picture 
will  show,  and  it  may  be  supposed  that  the  rest  of 
them  were  lost  off  in  the  plays  and  in  the  course 
of  the  centuries  of  decay. 

Annas  and  Caiaphas.    Annas  and  Caiaphas  in 


242      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

the  Corpus  Christi  plays  seem  to  have  been  in  im- 
portance almost  equal  to  Pilate.  At  Coventry  in 
1490  the  payment  to  Pilate  was  4s.,  to  Annas  2s.  2d., 
and  to  Caiaphas  3^.  4c?.,  and  in  other  years  the  rela- 
tive differences  were  about  the  same.  Excellent 
descriptions  of  the  costumes  of  both  these  char- 
acters have  survived,  fortunately  enough,  in  the 
Coventry  records.  The  smiths'  accounts  are  as  fol- 
lows: "  i486. — It'  for  a  tabarde  &  an  hoode  [the 
hire  of]  .  .  .  iiijc?.;  1487. — It'  paid  ffor  hyryng  off 
a  skarlet  wood  [hood]  and  a  raygete  [rochet]  ffor 
on  off  the  bisshopis  .  .  .  yd.;  1499. — It'  payde  for 
colours  and  gold  foyle  &  sylver  foyle  for  ij  myt- 
tyrs;  1544. — payd  for  a  bysschops  taberd  of  scarlet 
that  we  bowght  in  the  trente  church  .  .  .  x.y. ;  ^® 
Itm  paide  for  makyng  pe  ij  byschoppes  gownse 
.  .  .  xx]d;  Itm  p'd  for  furryng  pe  sayd  gownse 
.  .  .  ij^  iujd ;  Itm  an  ell  of  bockram  for  one  of  the 
bysshoppes  .  .  .  xiijd;  Itm  payd  for  furrynge  of 
the  hoodes  .  .  .  viij[(i]  ".^^  And  in  the  smiths* 
Purification  at  Chester  the  doctors  in  the  temple, 
though  a  different  set  of  doctors  from  those  men- 
tioned above,  seem  to  have  worn  very  similar  cos- 
tumes. In  1575,  for  instance,  I2d.  was  paid  "  To 
John  Shawe  for  lone  of  a  Doctor's  gowne  and  a 
hode  for  our  eldest  Doctor  ".^^  And  Joseph  in  both 
this  play  and  in  the  corresponding  scene  at  Wake- 

86  Sharp,  Loc.  cit.,  pp.  27-8. 
^T  Ibid.,  p.  55. 

88  Morris,   Chester  during  the  Plantagenet  and   Tudor 
Reigns,  p.  311  n. 


ACTORS   AND    THEIR    COSTUMES      243 

field  refers  to  the  doctor  as  "  so  gay  in  furres  fyne  ". 
Simeon,  likewise,  puts  on  his  vestments  before  Mary 
and  Joseph  come  with  the  Christ  child.  It  will 
thus  be  seen  that  no  special  care  seems  to  have  been 
taken  to  distinguish  the  doctors  and  Annas  and 
Caiaphas.  All  were  richly  dressed ;  but  beyond  this 
the  esthetic  tastes  of  the  players  and  the  people  did 
not  extend.  Hence  the  following  descriptions  of 
the  "  honourments  "  of  Annas  and  Caiaphas  in  the 
stage-directions  of  the  so-called  Ludus  Coventrice, 
though  they  do  not  come  under  the  strict  head  of 
Corpus  Christi  costumes,  seem  nevertheless  good 
summaries  of  the  usual  dresses  of  these  characters. 
Annas's  gown  is  thus  minutely  described : — 

Here  xal  Annas  shewyn  hymself  in  his  stage,  be  seyn 
after  a  busshop  of  the  hoold  lawe,  in  a  skarlet  gowne,  and 
over  that  a  blew  tabbard  furryd  with  whyte,  and  a 
mytere  on  his  hed,  after  the  hoold  lawe;  ij.  doctorys 
stondyng  by  hym  in  furryd  hodys,  and  on  beforn  hem  with 
his  staff  of  astat,  and  eche  of  hem  on  here  hedys  a  furryd 
cappe,  with  a  gret  knop  in  the  crowne,  and  on  stondyng 
beforn  as  a  Sarajyn,  the  wiche  xal  be  his  masangere.^a 

And  Caiaphas's  apparel  is  made  to  vary  only 
slightly  from  Annas's: — 

Here  goth  the  masangere  forth,  and  in  the  mene  tyme 
Cayphas  shewyth  himself  in  his  skafhald  arayd  lyche  to 
Annas,  savyng  his  tabbard  xal  be  red  furryd  with  white: 

89  Halliwell,  Coventry  Mysteries,  pp.  244-5. 


244      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

ij.  doctorys  with  him  arayd  with  pellys  aftyr  the  old  gyse, 
and  furryd  cappys  on  here  hedys.^o 

The  Three  Marys.  The  three  Marys  may  all 
be  considered  together;  for,  with  the  exception  of 
the  crown  always  worn  by  the  Virgin,  their  cos- 
tumes seem  to  have  been  alike.  Attention  has 
already  been  called  to  the  note  at  Lincoln  which 
mentions  "  a  gown  [borrowed]  of  my  lady  '  Powes  ' 
for  one  of  the  Maries,  and  the  other  Mary  to  be 
arrayed  in  the  crimson  gown  of  velvet  that  be- 
longeth  to  the  gild  ".  Likewise,  from  the  Coventry 
smiths'  accounts  we  have  the  following  references 
to  the  clothes  of  Mary  Magdalene  and  the  "two 
side  Maries  " :  "  Itm  p'd  for  mendynge  maudlyns 
cote  .  .  .  injd;  Itm  payd  for  skowryng  of  maryes 
crowns  .  .  .  ]d;  Itm  for  payntynge  pe  maries 
roUes*^  ....  iiijrf;  Itm  p'd  for  a  yard  of  bokeram 
.  .  .  xi]d;  Itm  p'd  for  makynge  pe  roles  .  .  .  .ijrf; 
Itm  p'd  for  mendyng  pe  maries  relies  .  .  .  i]d; 
paid  for  mendyng  the  maries  heare  .  .  .  viijc?'".^^ 

Tormentors.  Before  passing  to  the  other 
minor  or  less-known  characters  it  may  be  well  to 
notice  the  costumes  of  the  tormentors,  who,  at 
Coventry  at  least,  seem  to  have  been  the  most  gaily 

*^Loc.  ciL,  p.  246. 

*iThe  use  of  these  "rolles"  is  not  known.  A  friend 
has  suggested  to  the  author  that  they  may  refer  to  the  rolls 
of  hair, — not  buckram  over  which  the  hair  was  rolled,  but 
to  the  actual  rolls  of  artificial  hair  as  worn  by  the  players, 
who  were  men  and  had  to  have  their  headgear  rolled  and 
painted  in  advance. 

*2  Sharp,  Loc.  cit.,  p.  56. 


ACTORS   AND   THEIR   COSTUMES      245 

and  gorgeously  appareled  of  the  lesser  personages. 
In  the  Coventry  Crucifixion,  for  example,  there 
were  "  iiij  Jakkets  of  blake  bokeram  for  pe  tor- 
mentors wt  nayles  &  dysse  upon  pem  ",  and  "  other 
iiij  for  tormentors  of  an  other  suett  wythe  damaske 
fflowers ' ',  and  yet  "  ij  party  Jakketts  of  Rede  and 
blake "  and  "  ij  of  bokeram  wt  hamers 
crowned  ".*^  Three  hammers  crowned,  it  is  to  be 
noted,  were  the  arms  of  the  smiths'  company;  and 
the  fact  that  the  large  sum  of  twenty-four  shillings 
was  paid  for  four  gowns  and  the  four  hoods  that 
went  with  them  may  be  accounted  for  on  the  ground 
that  these  tormentors  bore  the  arms  of  the  company 
and  were  in  a  measure  the  guild's  representatives. 
"  Ye  Pendon  bearer "  at  Norwich  also  wore  "  a 
cote  of  yellow  buckram  wt  ye  Grocers'  arms  " ;  and 
one  might  infer,  since  the  companies  were  not  al- 
lowed to  show  their  arms  on  the  pageant-wagon, 
that  they  were  thus  accustomed  to  display  their 
insignia  on  one  of  the  minor  characters. 

Minor  Characters.  Of  the  costumes  of  the 
other  characters  in  the  Corpus  Christi  plays  little  is 
known,  and  their  apparel  may  be  passed  over  more 
hastily.  St.  Thomas  of  India  in  the  Wakefield  play 
of  that  name  wore  a  hat,  a  mantle,  a  coat,  a  gay 
girdle,  and  carried  a  silk  purse  and  a  staff.**  Peter 
in  the  Coventry  smiths'  Crucifixion  wore  a  "  chev- 
erel  gyld"  and  probably  an  artificial  beard  and  a 

*3  Sharp,  Loc.  cit.,  p.  i6. 

<*  Cf.  11.  319  ff. 


246     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

gown  of  some  kind.  Judas  seems  to  have  had  the 
traditional  red  beard  and  hair ;  and  in  the  Coventry 
Crucifixion  an  expenditure  of  two  shillings  was 
made  "  for  Canvys  for  Judas  Coote  ".  Joseph,  the 
foster  father  of  Christ,  is  always  referred  to  as 
an  old  man.  In  the  Chester  Nativity  he  is  men- 
tioned as  having  a  beard  "  like  a  buske  of  breyers, 
with  a  pound  of  heaire  about  his  mouth  and 
more  ".  The  Magi  in  the  Chester  Magi's  Oblation 
are  spoken  of  as  "  in  rich  Aray  ",  but  nothing  fur- 
ther is  known  of  their  "  arayment ".  In  the  Coven- 
try smiths'  Crucifixion,  Pilate's  wife,  Dame  Proc- 
ula,  wore  a  gown  borrowed  of  one  "  Maisturres 
grymesby  " ;  and  again  in  1490  "  a  quarte  of  wyne 
[was  given]  for  heyrynge  of  procula  is  gowne  ". 
In  1477  it  would  seem  that  she  wore  a  white  gown 
of  some  kind,  since  what  seems  to  have  been  white 
sleeves*^  were  put  into  one  of  her  garments. 
Pilate's  son  in  the  same  play  in  1490  wore  a  hat 
and  a  gown  of  some  kind  and  carried  a  poll-axe 
and  a  sceptre.  And,  lastly,  the  knights  in  the 
Coventry  cappers  ',  and  possibly  in  the  smiths  ',  play 
were  arrayed  in  suits  of  white  armor.  A  similar 
dress  for  the  knights  is  thus  described  in  the  stage- 
directions  to  the  Hegge  plays,  when  Judas  comes 
with  his  rabble  to  betray  Christ  at  Olivet :  "  Here 
Jhesus  with  his  dyscipulis  goth  into  the  place,  and 
ther  xal  come  in  a  x.  personys  weyl  be-seen  in  white 
arneys,  and  breganderes,  and  some  dysgysed  in  odyr 

***  Compare  Sharp,  Loc.  cit.,  p.  30. 


ACTORS   AND   THEIR   COSTUMES      247 

garmentes,  with  swerdys,  gleyvys,  and  other 
straunge  wepons,  as  cressettys,  with  feyr  and  lan- 
ternys  and  torchis  lyth  ".*® 

Summary.  We  have  thus  reviewed  what 
little  is  known  of  the  actors  and  their  costumes  on 
the  Corpus  Christi  stage.  From  this  little,  however, 
is  discernible  something  of  the  richness  and  the 
splendor  with  which  the  players  decorated  them- 
selves, without  care  for  the  appropriateness,  his- 
torical or  otherwise,  of  the  costumes  selected.  From 
this,  too,  we  have  seen  how  the  appeal  of  the  actors 
and  their  apparel  was  made  to  the  eye  and  to  the 
emotions  rather  than  to  the  educated  mind,  and, 
hence,  how  the  pageant-masters  could  be  content  to 
dress  their  players  in  incongruous,  anachronistic 
costumes.  Symbolism  of  a  vague  and  uncertain 
kind  was  used,  but  the  fundamental  appeal  to  the 
eye  and  the  esthetic  tastes  of  the  people  was  made 
through  the  richness  and  the  bright  coloring  of  the 
costumes. 

*«  Compare  Halliwell,  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  283. 


VIII 

THE  PASSING  OF  THE  PAGEANTS 

Introductory.  To  one  living  in  the  palmy 
days  of  the  Corpus  Christi  festival  in  the  last  quar- 
ter of  the  fifteenth  century  it  would  probably  have 
seemed  impossible  that  the  glory  of  the  day  could 
ever  pass  away ;  and  yet  a  century  later  the  pageants 
were  a  thing  of  the  past.  The  death  of  the  plays 
had  been  slow  and  perhaps  imperceptible,  but  never- 
theless sure.  Nor  was  this  death  due,  as  many  have 
thought,  either  to  the  expense  incident  to  the  pro- 
duction of  the  plays  or  to  the  varying  wealth, 
growth,  or  decline  of  the  guilds,  but  rather  to  an 
entire  change  of  thought  and  religious  feeling  in  the 
English  nation.  That  this  is  true  may  be  seen 
from  a  cursory  glance  at  the  plays  and  their  audi- 
ences in  the  earlier  and  later  years  of  the  Corpus 
Christi  festival. 

Popularity  of  the  Pageants.  In  the  institution 
and  gradual  spread  of  the  Corpus  Christi  plays  in 
England  shortly  after  131 1  there  is  no  doubt  that 
the  serious  interest  of  the  people  was  involved 
spiritually,  or  religiously,  as  well  as  for  the  sake 
of  recreation.  One  cannot  understand  these  plays 
otherwise ;  this  is  the  note  that  stands  out  from  all 
248 


PASSING   OF   THE   PAGEANTS      249 

the  rest  in  the  thousand  days  of  pardon  granted  by 
Pope  Clement  to  "  euery  person  that  resorted  peace- 
ably to  see  the  same  playes  ",  in  the  wills  of  dying 
men  leaving  money  and  garments  for  the  pageants, 
in  the  by-laws  of  the  guilds  that  their  plays  should 
be  "  in  honour  of  God  the  Father  Almighty,  and  the 
most  glorious  Virgin  Mary,  and  to  the  honor  of 
the  glorious  confessor  St.  John  of  Beverley,  and  All 
Saints  ",  and  in  the  enactments  of  the  towns  that 
"  every  yerr  forever  "  their  plays  should  be  pro- 
duced. Then  when  one  adds  to  the  religious  motive 
the  other  one,  that  the  festival  was  the  great  holiday 
for  the  representation  of  the  "  pageants  of  delight  ", 
one  may  understand  what  a  hold  the  plays  had  on 
the  people.  This  was  the  season  for  the  religious 
and  the  fun-maker,  for  the  priest  and  the  people, 
and  for  the  nobleman  and  the  artisan.  Its  annual 
return  was  hailed  with  delight  and  unbounded 
pleasure  by  persons  of  every  rank  and  station,  and 
the  personal  interest  of  every  patriotic  citizen  in  the 
success  of  the  pageants  was  felt  in  every  prepara- 
tion and  every  leet.  And  it  was  only  after  a  long 
and  protracted  struggle  that  the  people  of  Eng- 
land were  finally  willing  to  relinquish  the  holiday 
which  for  three  centuries  had  been  the  greatest 
religious  and  public  celebration  of  the  year. 

Cause  of  their  Death.  The  real  cause  of  the 
death  of  the  Corpus  Christi  plays,  however,  is  not 
far  to  seek.  It  was  not  the  expense  or  the  changes 
in  the  formation  of  the  trades  guilds — these  mat- 


250      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

ters  had  been  successfully  battled  with  in  the  early 
days  of  the  pageants, — but  a  gradual  revulsion  of 
feeling  on  the  part  of  the  people,  due  to  the  work 
of  religious  reformers  and  the  changing  spirit  of  the 
age.  The  dean  of  York,  Dr.  Matthew  Hutton,  ex- 
pressed this  in  his  letter  to  the  mayor  and  city  coun- 
cil of  York  in  1568  on  their  asking  him  for  his  ad- 
vice as  to  the  suitableness  of  the  plays  for  repre- 
sentation.    Dr.  Hutton's  reply  was  as  follows  : 

Sal.  in  Chrlsto.  My  most  humble  dewtie  vouched.  I 
have  perused  the  bokes  that  your  lordshipp  with  your 
brethren  sent  me,  and  as  I  finde  manie  thinges  that  I 
muche  like  because  of  th'antiquities,  so  see  I  manie 
thinges  that  I  can  not  allowe  because  they  be  disagreinge 
from  the  senceritie  of  the  gospell,  the  which  thinges,  yf 
they  shuld  either  be  altogether  cancelled  or  altered  into 
other  matters,  the  wholle  drift  of  the  play  shuld  be  altered, 
and  therefore  I  dare  not  put  my  pen  unto  it,  because  I 
want  both  skill  and  leasure  to  amende  it,  thoghe  in  good 
will  I  assure  you  yf  I  were  worthie  to  geve  your  lord- 
shipp ^nd  your  right  worshipfull  brethren  consell,  suerlic 
mine  advise  shuld  be  that  it  shuld  not  be  plaid,  ffor  thoghe 
it  was  plawsible  to  yeares  agoe,  and  wold  now  also  of  the 
ignorant  sort  be  well  liked,  yet  now  in  this  happie  time 
of  the  gospell,  I  knowc  the  learned  will  mislike  it,  and 
how  the  state  will  beare  with  it,  I  know  not.  Thus  bc- 
inge  bold  to  utter  mine  opinion  unto  your  lordshippe,  I 
committ  you  and  your  brethren  to  the  tuition  of  God's 
spirit.  From  Thorneton  the  27  of  Marche,  1568. 
Your  Lordshipps  in  Christ  to  comaunde. 

Math.  Hutton. 

To  the  right  honorable  my  Lorde  Mayor 
of  York  and  the  right  worshipfull  his 
brethren,  geve  this.^ 

iDavies,  York  Records,  pp.  267-8. 


PASSING    OF   THE   PAGEANTS      251 

This  is  the  same  spirit,  too,  or  air  of  superior 
knowledge,  that  was  expressed  in  the  banes  to  the 
Chester  plays  at  the  time  of  the  attempted  revival 
of  the  plays  in  1600. — 


As  all  that  shall  see  them,  shall  most  welcome 

be, 
soe  all  that  here  them,  wee  most  humble  praye 
not  to  compare  this  matter  or  Storie 
with  the  age  or  tyme  wherin  we  presentlye 

staye, 
but  in  the  tyme  of  Ignorance  wherin  we  did 

straye ; 
Then  doe  I  compare  that  this  land  throughout 
non  had  the  like  nor  the  like  dose  sett  out. 
If  the  same  be  likeinge  to  the  comons  all, 
then  our  desier  is  to  satisfie — for  that  is  all  our 

game — 
yf  noe  matter  or  shewe  therof  speciall 
doe  not  please,  but  misslike  the  most  of  the 

trayne, 
goe  backe  I  saye  to  the  firste  tyme  againe, 
then  shall  you  finde :  the  f yne  witt,  at  this  day 

aboundinge, 
at  that  day  and  that  age  had  verye  small  be- 

inge.2 

2  Deimling,  Chester  Plays,  p.  3. 


252      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 

Change  of  Feeling  Gradual.  The  abandon- 
ment of  the  plays,  however,  had  not  been  accom- 
plished without  a  protracted  struggle  and  with  the 
utmost  reluctance,  a  reluctance  which  had  extended 
over  an  entire  century.  But  the  change  was  as  cer- 
tain and  as  sure  as  it  was  gradual,  and  may  perhaps 
be  first  noticed  in  the  guilds  evading  their  pageant 
duties,  in  their  complaining  at  the  expense  of  the 
plays,  and  in  their  petitions  to  the  city  councils  to 
"  exonerate  and  discharge  theym  of  and  for 
the  bringinge  forthe "  of  their  scenes.  In  their 
earlier  days  the  pageants  had  been  an  honor  and 
a  pleasure  to  be  sought  after;  later  they  were  a 
burden  and  an  expense.  Then  came  the  variation 
of  the  plays  and  the  substitution  of  new  ones,  the 
Corpus  Christi  cycles  giving  place  to  the  Pater 
Noster  and  the  Creed  plays,  allegorical  productions, 
which  were  substituted  for  the  regular  pageants. 
Within  the  Corpus  Christi  cycle,  too,  changes 
gradually  became  evident  and  "  certen  pagyauntes 
[were  made]  excepte,  that  is  to  say,  the  deyng  of 
our  lady,  the  assumption  of  our  lady,  and  the  cor- 
onacion  of  our  lady".  Then  came  the  temporary 
suspension  of  the  plays  for  certain  years,  because 
the  king  had  visited  the  city  earlier  in  the  season 
and  pageants  had  been  given  on  that  occasion,  or  be- 
cause the  plague  had  broken  out  in  the  midst  of  the 
people.  In  their  earlier  years  the  plays  had  gone 
forward  in  spite  of  the  plague,  and  the  mayor  and 
aldermen,  as  for  instance  at  Lincoln,  had  even  fur- 


PASSING    OF   THE   PAGEANTS      253 

nished  the  costumes  in  order  that  the  holiday  might 
not  be  lacking.  But  by  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century  we  find  the  council  at  York  suspending  the 
performances  in  consideration  of  the  plague  then 
raging  and  devoting  half  of  their  pageant  silver 
to  those  "  visited  with  the  syknesse  which  is  nowe 
dangerouse  in  the  citie  ".  Only  half  of  the  play 
money  was  given,  however;  the  rest  was  so  much 
saved.  And  finally  came  the  royal  opposition,  which 
was  first  evident  in  the  last  years  of  the  reign  of 
Henry  VHI,  when  the  religious  guilds  and  fraterni- 
ties were  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  crown.  The 
plays  were  continued  with  some  degree  of  regu- 
larity, however,  during  the  reign  of  his  successors, 
Edward  VI  and  Mary,  but  on  the  accession  of 
Elizabeth  the  opposition  of  the  civic  authorities 
became  directly  apparent,  although  they  were  com- 
pelled occasionally  to  comply  with  the  demands  of 
the  people  of  "  the  lesser  sort ".  From  now  on, 
however,  the  plays  were  produced  only  by  a  special 
leet  of  the  city,  where  heretofore  they  had  been 
omitted  only  by  a  special  leet.  And  while  from  the 
accession  of  Elizabeth  on  to  the  close  of  the  cen- 
tury sporadic  revivals  of  interest  in  the  plays  are 
to  be  noticed  in  the  towns  throughout  the  kingdom, 
the  principles  of  the  Reformation  had  worked  with 
telling  effect  and  every  outburst  of  interest  was 
little  more  than  a  spark  of  the  old-time  splendor. 

In  the  Separate  Towns.     This  passing  of  the 
pageants  had  not  progressed  with  equal  uniformity 


254     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

of  course  in  all  the  towns.  At  Ipswich,  for  instance, 
the  plays  are  reported  under  date  of  Jan.  30,  1531, 
as  "  laide  for  ever  aside  by  order  ",  though  as  late 
as  1542  "  every  householder,  wth  their  family  "  was 
required  to  follow  the  pageants  in  the  procession 
and  "  every  Warden  and  Master  of  the  Trade  "  was 
assessed  id.  for  "  their  Pageants  uppon  the  day  of 
Corp'  Chr'i ".  At  Chester,  however,  the  pageants 
continued  until  1574,  and  at  Coventry  until  1580. 
The  fate  of  most  of  the  pageant-wagons  is  probably 
told  in  the  story  of  the  grocers'  car  at  Norwich. — 

Item,  yt  is  to  be  noted  that  for  asmuch  as  for  pe  space 
of  8  yeris  ther  was  neyther  Semblye  nor  metynge,  in  pe 
meane  season  pe  Pageante  remaynynge  6  yeris  in  pe  Gate 
bowse  of  Mr.  John  Sotherton,  of  London,  untyll  pe  ferme 
came  to  20s ;  and  bycause  pe  Surveiors  in  Mr.  Sotherton's 
tyme  would  not  dysburs  ani  moni  ther  for,  pe  Pageante 
was  sett  oute  in  pe  Strete  &  so  remayned  at  pe  Black 
fryers  brydge  in  open  strete,  when  bothe  yt  was  so 
weather  beaten,  pat  pe  cheife  parte  ^s  rotton;  wher- 
upon  Mr.  John  Oldrich,  then  Maior  pe  yer  1570,  together 
with  Mr.  Tho.  Whall,  Alderman,  offred  yt  to  pe  Com- 
pany to  sell  for  the  some  of  20.  s.  [sic],  and  when  no  per- 
son wold  buy  yt  for  pat  price  and  pat  yt  styll  remayned,  & 
nowe  one  pece  therof  rent  of  &  now  another  as  was  lyke 
all  to  come  to  nothinge,  Nicholas  Sotherton,  then  offycer 
to  Mr.  Maior,  was  requested  to  take  yt  in  peces  for  the 
dept  dewe  to  hym  for  pe  seyd  howse  ferm  therof  for  6 
yeres  aforesayde,  at  3s  4d-  a  yer,  who  accordinglye  dyd 
take  downe  pe  same  &  howsed  yt  accordinglye.^ 

Such  was  the  disposition  made  of  the  grocers' 

wagon  at  Norwich  and  such  was  that,  no  doubt, 

^Waterhouse,  Non-Cycle  Mystery  Plays,  pp.  xxxii-iii. 


PASSING    OF   THE   PAGEANTS      255 

of  many  another  one  in  England,  if  the  history  of 
all  could  be  known. 

Coventry.  At  Coventry  complaint  was  made 
of  the  expense  of  the  plays  as  early  as  1539.  In 
that  year  the  mayor  of  the  city  in  a  letter  to  Crom- 
well declared  the  poor  commoners  were  put  to  such 
expense  with  their  plays  that  they  fared  the  worse 
all  the  year  after.  But  the  festival  had  such  vogue 
among  the  citizens  that  the  plays  held  out  until  1580 
when  they  seem  to  have  been  ''  laid  down  "  for  all 
time.  In  1584,  a  new  pageant,  the  Destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  was  given,  and  the  songs  to  the  shearmen 
and  tailors'  play,  which  are  dated  1591,  rather  sug- 
gest that  an  attempt  probably  was  made  to  revive 
the  regular  cycle  in  that  year,  but  of  the  plays  after 
1580  we  have  no  further  proof  or  mention.  Cer- 
tainly all  the  crafts  could  not  have  taken  part  in 
the  attempted  revival  in  1591 ;  for  some  of  the 
pageants  had  been  sold  in  1586  and  1587.  In  1596, 
however,  the  cappers  were  disposing  of  their  "  bysh- 
opps  hodds  "  and  the  "  furrs  of  players  gowns  ", 
and  the  weavers  had  "  players  aparell "  to  rent  as 
late  as  1607.  The  last  heard  of  the  pageants  is 
in  a  note  from  the  city  annals  in  1628  that,  "  On 
the  1st  daye  of  August  1628  being  Lamas  daye, 
certaine  of  or  poore  Com'oners  rose,  and  pulled 
downe  the  hedges  of  a  peece  of  the  Comon  ground 
at  whitley  at  the  hether  end  next  to  Barnes 
[Barons]  close  wch  in  former  tyme  was  inclosed 
and  taken  out  of  the  Comons  their,  to  defraye  some 


256      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

charges  for  the  Pageants  playing  here  in  this  Cytty, 
and  Midsummer  watch,  wch  said  Pageants  and 
watch  have  bine  put  downe  many  yeares  since,  and 
yett  the  said  peece  of  Com'on  ground  has  remayned 
severall  and  inclosed  until!  now  ".* 

Minor  Cycles.  /At  Bungajvk  similar  destruc- 
tion of  the  pageantH:ars  had  been  made  more  than 
a  century  before,  when  somebody  the  night  after 
Corpus  Christi  in  15 14  "brake  and  threw  down 
five  pageants  of  the  said  inhabitants,  that  is  to  saye, 
hevyn  pagent,  the  pagent  of  all  the  world,  Paradyse 
pagent,  Bethlehem  pagent,  and  helle  pagent,  the 
whyche  wer  ever  wont  to  fore  to  be  caryed  abowt 
the  seyd  town  upon  the  seyd  daye  in  the  honor  of 
the  blissyd  SacremenVV)  The  plays  continued, 
however,  until  sometime  in  the  last  quarter  of  the 
century,  the  last  note  we  have  of  them  being  in  1591. 
At  Beverley  it  is  known  that  the  "  comon  place  " 
were  in  existence  as  late  as  1555,  but  no  trace  has 
been  found  of  them  at  a  later  date.  \M  Hereford 
the  pageants  disappeared  sooner.  "  At  a  law-day 
holden  at  the  cytey  of  Hereford  before  John 
Warnecombe,  esquyer,  mayor,  the  tenth  day  of  De- 
cember, the  second  yere  of  our  sovereign  lord  Ed- 
ward the  Syxt ",  1548,  it  was  agreed  that  the  "  cor- 
poracions  of  artificers,  craftes,  and  occupacions  in 
the  cytey,  who  were  bound  by  the  grauntes  of  their 
corporacions  yerely  to  bring  forthe  and  set  forward 
dyvers  pageaunttes  of  ancient  history  in  the  proces- 

*  Sharp,  Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  12. 


PASSING    OF   THE   PAGEANTS      257 

sions  of  the  cytey  upon  the  day  and  feast  of  Corpus 
Xpi,  which  now  is  and  are  omitted  and  surceased  " 
should  pay  an  annual  sum  toward  the  expenses  of 
"the  ruynous  and  decayed  causeys,  pavements, 
streets,  and  walls^  cleansing  the  town  ditch  or  such 
like  reparations^*^  / 

Chester.    At   Chester   the  plays   lasted   until  - 
1574,  but  the  last  thirty  years  of  their  career  was  / 
a  checkered  one.    In  1546,  1551,  1554,  1561,  1567,/ 
1568,  1569,  1 57 1  and  1574  the  pageants  had  been 
produced,  but  the  performances  of  1571  and  1574  ; 
had  aroused  all  the  virile  enmity  of  an  awakened/ 
church.    In     1571,   the   Rogers's   tell   us   in  their 
Breauarye,    "  the    Maior    [John    Hankey]    would 
needs  have  the  Playes   (commonly  called  Chester 
Playes)   to  go  forward,  against  the  wills  of  the 
Bishops  of  Canterbury,  York,  and  Chester ".     A 
special  inhibition  even  "  was  sent  from  the  Arch- 
bishop to  stay  them,  but  it  came  too  late  ".     And 
again  in  1574  Sir  John  Savage  "caused  the  Popish 
Plays  of  Chester,  to  be  played  the  Sunday,  Munday, 
Tuesday  and  Wednesday  after  Mid-sommer-day,  in 
contempt  of  an  Inhibition  and  the  Primats  Letters 
from  York,  and  from  the  Earl  of  Huntington'*. 
Some  of  the  plays  were  omitted,  however,  those 
"  which  were  thought  might  not  be  justified,  for  the 
superstition   th^t   was   in   them ".     The   Breauary 
tells  us,  too,  that  1574  was  the  last  year  of  the 
pageants  in  Chester. 

(5 Johnson,  Ancient  Customs  of  Hereford,  pp.  119-20. 


258     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

York.  As  at  Chester,  so  at  York,  the  same 
losing  battle  was  fought  for  the  plays.  In  the  early 
fifties  the  plays  had  been  suspended  on  account  of 
the  plague,  and  again  in  1564,  1565,  and  1566  they 
were  dropped  for  similar  reasons.  When  they 
came  to  be  resumed  in  1568  serious  doubts  were 
entertained  as  to  the  suitability  of  the  old  plays 
for  public  representation;  and  it  was  on  this  occa- 
sion that  Dr.  Hutton  wrote  the  letter  quoted  above 
about  the  changed  spirit  of  the  times.  Because  of 
this  letter  the  city  council  voted  "  to  have  no  play 
this  yere,  and  the  booke  of  the  Creyde  play  to  be 
delyveryd  in  agayn  " ;  and,  though  the  "  dyverse 
comoners  of  the  citie  were  muche  desyreous  to  have 
Corpuscrysty  play  this  yere ",  the  festival  seems 
to  have  gone  by  without  any  pageants.  In  1569  the 
pageants  were  produced  on  Whit-Tuesday,  and  in 
1572  the  Pater  Noster  play  was  given  "on  the 
Thursday  next  after  Trynitie  Sonday";  but  the 
regular  Corpus  Christi  pageants  do  not  seem  to  have 
been  seriously  agitated  again  until  1575,  when  a 
committee  was  sent  from  the  city  council  to  the 
archbishop  to  see  about  correcting  the  plays  and 
having  them  ready  "  before  Lammas  next  ".  Noth- 
ing further  was  heard  from  the  committee,  however, 
and  we  may  suppose  that  their  application  to  the 
archbishop  was  not  successful.  Thus  the  matter 
lay  dormant  until  1579,  when  it  was  agreed  by  the 
council  that  the  plays  should  be  given  again,  but 
"  first  the  booke  shalbe  caried  to  my  Lord  Arche- 


PASSING   OF  THE   PAGEANTS      259 

bisshop  [Sandys]  and  Mr.  Deane  [Hutton]  to  cor- 
recte,  if  that  my  Lord  Archebisshop  doo  well  like 
theron  ".  Apparently  he  did  not  "  well  like  ther- 
on  ",  however ;  for  the  plays  were  not  given  that 
summer  and  the  subject  was  again  dropped  until 
the  following  year,  1580,  when  the  citizens  made 
a  final  effort  to  revive  the  pageants  and  "  did 
earnestly  request  of  my  Lord  Mayor  and  others 
the  worshipful  assemblee  that  Corpus  Xpi  play 
might  be  played  this  yere  ".  A  new  mayor  was 
now  in  office,  however,  and  he  coldly  replied  that 
"  he  and  his  brethren  would  consider  of  their  re- 
quest ".^  This  is  the  last  mention  of  the  plays  at 
York,  although  the  bakers  were  still  choosing 
pageant-masters  as  late  as  1656. 

Substituted  Plays.  At  Lincoln  the  same  in- 
terest in  and  reaction  against  the  plays  is  to  be  found 
in  the  course  of  the  centuries.  Here,  however,  the 
interest  of  the  citizens  seem  never  to  have  been  so 
much  centered  in  plays  of  the  strictly  biblical  type ; 
for  from  before  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century 
their  pageants  were  varying  between  the  Pater 
Noster,  St.  Laurence,  St.  Susanna,  King  Robert  of 
Cecily,  Santa  Clara,  and  Corpus  Christi  plays.  And 
even  as  early  as  1564  their  "  Popish  Plays  "  had 
already  been  replaced  by  a  semi-religious  "  standing 
play  of  some  story  of  the  Bible".  The  subject 
chosen  was  "  the  story  of  Toby  ",  and  the  citizens 
seem  to  have  attempted  to  supplant  the  zeal  and 

*  Davies  York  Records,  pp.  268-72. 


260      CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 

earnestness  of  the  Corpus  Christi  plays  with  the 
show  and  ornamentation  of  the  new  subject.  Other 
towns,  too,  were  constrained  to  gratify  the  wishes 
of  their  citizens  with  substituted  pageants.  At 
Coventry,  where  the  regular  plays  were  shelved,  as 
we  have  seen,  in  1580,  the  Destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem, a  semi-religious,  semi-historical  play  had  to 
be  substituted  four  years  later;  and  again  in  the 
nineties  the  History  of  King  Edward  the  Confessor 
and  the  Conquest  of  the  Danes  were  offered  as  al- 
ternatives for  the  Destruction  of  Jerusalem. 

Conclusion.  Thus  we  have  seen  that  long  be- 
fore the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  all 
the  regular  Corpus  Christi  plays  had  come  to  an  end 
and  their  places  had  either  been  taken  by  semi- 
religious,  semi-historical  scenes,  or  else  had  been 
left  vacant.  It  is  fair  to  say,  however,  that  none 
of  the  substituted  plays  seem  to  have  given  the 
same  keen  delight  or  to  have  been  undertaken  with 
the  old  time  religious  zeal  that  had  attended  the 
representation  of  the  regular  Corpus  Christi  plays. 
This  was  natural,  too.  In  the  earlier  plays  the  pro- 
duction of  the  pageants  had  been  attended  with  a 
sense  of  religious  duty  as  well  as  of  pleasure,  and 
the  actors  and  the  citizens  had  felt  that  they  were 
doing  themselves  and  their  visitors  a  spiritual 
service  in  thus  portraying  the  scenes  of  the  Bible. 
The  plays  were  a  duty  as  well  as  a  pleasure.  But 
in  the  new  semi-historical  plays  the  spiritual  ele- 
ment was  absent  and  the  whole  motive  was  on  a 


PASSING    OF   THE   PAGEANTS      261 

lower  plane.  Thus  the  richness  and  the  splendor 
of  the  pageants  was  kept  up  after  the  biblical  scenes 
were  gone,  but  there  was  never  again  the  spiritual 
and  religious  fervor  of  the  earlier  days.  The  Cor- 
pus Christi  plays  had  fulfilled  their  mission;  they 
were  creatures  of  a  single  age  killed  by  the  sophis- 
tication of  a  new  era. 


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Simmons,     T.     F.,     Lay     Folks     Mass     Book.    London. 

1879. 
Skaife,  R.  H.,  Register  of  the  Guild  of  Corpus  Christi  in 

the  City  of  York.    Surtees  Soc.  Pub.     1872. 
Skeat,   W.  W.,  Pierce  the  Ploughmans  Crede.    Oxford. 

1906. 
Smith,  L.  T.,  Play  of  Abraham  and  Isaac.    In  Anglia,  vii. 

316-337. 
Smith,  L.  T.,  York  Plays.    Oxford.     1885. 
Smith,  T.,  English  Gilds.    London.    1870. 
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BIBLIOGRAPHY  269 

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INDEX 


Actors: 
addressing      their      audi- 
ences, 192-93 
costumes,   216-19 
entertainment,   214 
feigning  sleep,  202 
female,  215 
in  the  procession,  81 
kneeling  in  prayer,  193-95 
non-speaking,    199 
personnel,     55-57 
playing  double  parts,  211- 

14 
requirements  of,  210,  215 
selection  of,  55.  57 
sitting  on  stage,  153,  201 
traveling,   56 
Adam,   costume,  220-22 
Adam,  play,  225 
Addresses,   direct,  to  audi- 
ence, 192 
Albright,  V.  E.,  88,  89,  120- 
22,    123,    140,    141,    146, 
149,    156-60,    161 »,    164, 
170 
Anachronisms,    189-90,   219 
Angels,   costumes,  231 
Anima  Christi,  235 
Annas,   costume,  242 
Antiphons,  197 
Aquinas,   St.  Thomas,   10 
Arneway,  John,  13 
Assessments    for    pageants, 

Assignments  of  plays,  34-37 
Banes,   42 


Bates,  K.  L.,  4,  6 
Beverley : 
earliest   record   of   plays, 

^3         •     .    .       . 

Corpus  Christi  guild,  20- 

21 

mimetic  pageants,  70 
Paradise,  play,  176-77 
play   by   the   "  worthies," 

36-37 

Bibliography,   262 

Birmingham     Free     Refer- 
ence Library  burned,  4 

Brome  plays,   15 

Caiaphas,  costume,  242 
Camhises,  205 
Canterbury     Marching 

Watch,  205 
Chambers,  E.  K. : 
mentioned,    4,    6,    13,    39, 

138,  220 
quoted,  46W,  120,  225-26 
Characters : 
minor,  245 
non-speaking,   199 
Chester : 
earliest  record  of  plays,  12 
plays,  15,  49 

plays  discussed,  89-93. 
116,  147-51.  165-66, 
178-79.  257 
plays  quoted,  90,  96,  138, 
185,  188-89,  192-93.  204, 
227,  251 
Choristers,  199 


271 


272      CORPUS   CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 


Christ : 

character,  206,  232 
costumes,  234 
spirit,   235 
City     council,     supervision 
over    pageants,    26,    29, 
33,  37 
Clement  V,  Pope,  10 
Colclow,  Thorn's,  52 
Collier,  J.  Payne,  8,  119 
Confusion  of  terms,  medie- 
val, 6 
Cornish  plays,  176 
Corpus     Christi     cycle     of 
plays: 
incongruities,   107,   no 
influence  of  the  liturgical 

drama,  1 10-12 
merging    of    old    scenes, 

109 
new  scenes,  108 
Corpus  Christi   festival : 
entertainment  of  visitors, 

32 
expenses  on  the  city,  30, 

32 
growth,  II 
length,  104 
origin,    10,   61 
plays  at,   12,  76 
spirit,  75 

street  cleaning  for,  44 
Corpus    Christi    guilds,    11- 

12,  20-21 
Corpus  Christi  plays: 
annual  production,  3;^ 
assessments   for,   27 
assignment  of,   34,   36 
attitude    toward,    25,    75, 

117,  249-53,  260-61 
changes,  108,  109,  112 
commercial  profit,   16-17 
conflict    with    procession, 
9-10,  76-77 


control        by        religious 

guilds,  19 
control  by  trades  guilds, 

19-20,  21-23 
cost,  97,  98 
death,  248-61 
defined,  8-10 
development,  69,  73,   108, 

IIO-III 

earliest  mention,  12,  13 

establishment,  12 

expenses,  28,  30 

geographical  extent,  15 

historical  study  impos- 
sible, 3 

hostility  toward,  250-53 

incongruities,  107,  no, 
209 

influence  of  the  liturgical 
drama,   110-12 

meaning,  8-9 

merging  of,  109 

music  with,   196-99 

new  scenes,  108 

number,  104 

order,  45-47 

playing-places,  45-51 

popularity,  14,  248-49 

procession  and,  12,  61,  76 

register,  37 

rehearsals,  58 

religious  purpose,  16,  75, 
248-49 

responsibility  for,  24 

revision,  53-55,  108 

selection  of,  37-38 

sources  of  information 
concerning,  4-6 

stations  for,  45-51 

substitution  of  other 
plays,  _  259 

supervision  by  city  coun- 
cil, 26 


INDEX 


273 


time  required  for  presen- 
tation,  104 

varying    dates     for     pre- 
sentation, 8 
Corpus   Christi   procession : 

attendance,  63,  80 

city  officials,  79 

control        by        religious 
guilds,   19-21 
•     craftsmen,   79-80 

dumb-shows  in,  62,  69,  73 

earliest    record    in    Eng- 
land, II 

establishment,  10,  61 

etiquette,  64 

halts,  47 

hour  for  starting,  62 

mimetic  pageants  in,  69 

order,  69,  77-81 

players  in,  81 

plays  and,  9-10,  61,  69,  76 
Corpus  Christi  shrine,  77 
Corpus  Christi  stage: 

conventions,   168-208 

crudities,   187-89 

hindrances  in  studying,  3 

historical     study     impos- 
sible, 3 

problems,  2 

scenery,  168-69 

symbolism,  169 

women  on,  215 
Corpus      Christi       staging, 
114,     117,     118,     122-23, 
168-70 
Costumes : 

character  of,  219,  247 

church  vestments,  218 

how  procured,  216-19 

purchased,  218 
Coventry   plays,    14,    134-36, 
166,       175-76,       179-81, 
197-98,  255 
Craig,  H.,  4,  6,  50 
Cromwell,  Thomas,   18 


Croo,  Robert,  38 
Crucifixion    scenes,    137-39, 
204-207 

Davidson,  C.,  69-70 
Davies,  R.,  4,  5,  61 
Destruction    of    Jerusalem, 

123,  124-25,  255,  260 
Devil,  the,  224,  226-29 
Digby  Mysteries,  200 
Disraeli,       Curiosities       of 

Literature,  233 
Distance,  symbolical,  184-86 
Doctors,  costumes,  243 
Dublin  pageant  tableaux,  72 
Dugdale,    Sir    William,    17, 

84 
Dumb-show     pageants,     62 

69-73 
Dundee,    dumb-show     pag- 
eants, 71 

English  Miscellany,  An,  6 
Entrances,  discussed,   146 
Erghes,  John  of,  30-31,  177 
Eve,  costume,  220-22 
Exits,    discussed,    146,    200- 
202 

Fines,  29,  52 
Furnivall,  F.  J.,  4  5 
Furnivall   Miscellany,  6 

Gammer    Gurton's    Needle, 

226-27 
Gayley,   C  M.,  239-41 
God,  character,  222 

Hall,  Joseph,  211 
Hegge  plays,   172-74.   178 
Hell-mouth,   88-94 
Herod,  costume,  237 
Holme,  R.,  128 
Hone,  W.,  207 
Hutton,   Dean   Matthew  of 
York,  250,  258 


274     CORPUS   CHRISTI   PAGEANTS 


Ipswich,  city,  ii 
Joseph,  costume,  246 
Judas,  character,  206,  246 
JuHana,   Flemish  nun,    10 
Jusserand,   J.  J.,  86w 

Knights,  costumes,  246 

Ladders  used  for  exits,  201 
Leach,    A.    F.,    4,    5-6,    80^ 

lOOM 

Lincoln,    St.   Anne's   Guild, 

20 
Ludlow  church  miserere,  93 
Ludus     Cov  entries,     iy2-y4, 

17S 

Magi,  costumes,  246 
Manly,    John    M.,    4,     15M, 

86m,  123 
Mary,  character,  244 
Matthews,  B.,  119-20 
McKerrow,  R.  B.,  220-22 
Melton,  Friar  William,  9 
Mirrour    for    Magistrates, 

94 
Monologues,   191 
Morris,  R.  H.,  4,  5 
Multiple         representation, 

132-33.   160-62 
Musicians,    199 
Music  with  the  plays,  196 

Newhall,   William,    12 
New     plays,     development, 

108 
Noah,  costume,  223 
Non-speaking       characters, 

199. 
Norwich : 
grocers*  pageant,  87,  131, 

176,  254 
plays,   130-31 
Numbers,    symbolical,    186- 

87 


Ordish,  T.  F.,   125 
"Original  Book,"  The    Z7 

Pageants : 

assessments   for,   27 

attitude  toward,   25 

confusion  of  meaning,  6-7 

contributory.    23 

control,   19-20 

death,  248-61 

expenses,  28 

popularity,  248-49 

responsibility  for,  24 

supervision  by  city  coun- 
cil, 26 
Pageant-houses,    loo-ioi 
Pageant-master : 

duties,  29,  51,  52,  55,  60 

fines,  52,  96 
Pageant- wagons : 

cost,  97 

decorations,  95 

description,  83 

"horsing,"  102 

houses   for,   100 

joint  use,  loi 

number,  104 

promptness   required,    103 

sedes  on,  133 

size,  95,   133 

used  for  sedes,  118 
Paradise,    176-77 
Peter,  costume,  245 
Petit   de   Julleville,    L.,   74, 

86»,  112-13 
Picart,   B.,   11 
Pilate : 

character  of,  239 

son  of,  246 

wife  of,  246 
Platea: 

defined,  112 

properties  on,   170-84 

symbolizing  distance,  184- 
85 


INDEX 


275 


Play,    confusion    of    mean- 
ing, 6-7 
Play-book,  The,  37 
Players  in  the  procession,  81 
Playing-places,  46,  49-51 

banners   for,  45 

rental,  47 
Play  letting,  52 
Plymouth,  records,  7 
Pollard,  A.  W.,  I5«,  54,  I30 
Prayers  by  actors,   193 
Prologues,   195 

Quarrel  between  weavers 
and  cordwainers,  York, 
65-69 

Register  of  plays,  37 
Rehearsals : 

expenses,  58-59 

places,  59 
Revision  of  plays,  53,  54 
Reynolds,  G.  F.,  170-71,  174 
Rogers  Breviary  of  Chester: 

mentioned,     5,     123,    125- 
128,  222 

quoted,   47.   83,    127,    I33. 
218,  223 
Rotation  speeches,   190-91 

Sackville,       Mirrour       for 

Magistrates,  94 
Scenery,   132,   168-69 
Scenes : 
merging  of  old,   109 
new,  108 
unlocated  Corpus  Christi, 

170-84 
unlocated         Elizabethan, 

170,   178,   183 
unlocated,  on  the  station- 
ary stage,  172 
Sedes: 
defined,    112 
discussed,  118 


on     the     pageant-wagon, 

I33»  168 
Shakspere,  William,  i,  113, 

229-30,  237 
Sharp,  Thomas: 
Dissertation,  3,  91,  92,  93, 

123,  179-80,  213-14,  228, 

229,  233,  236 
mentioned,  3-4,  6,  86 
Weaver's  Pageant,   136 
Shrine,  Corpus  Christi,  77 
Simultaneous    scenery,    132, 

160 
Sleep,  feigned,  202 
Smith,  L.  T.,  4,  5,  130,  141, 

211,  213 
Songs  and  antiphons,   197 
Souls,   costumes,   229-31 
Sources      of      information 

concerning       Corpus 

Christi  plays,  4 
Sprott,  Thomas,  11 
Stage    conventions,    168-208 
Station  banners,  45 
Station  renting,  47 
Street  cleaning,  44 
Strutt,  J.,  84 
Substituted  plays,  259 
Symbolical   distance,    184-86 
Symbolical     numbers,     186- 

Symbolism,    169 

"Telescoping"    of     scenes, 

109 
Thomas  of  India,  costume, 

245 
Time  symbolism,  187 
Tormentors,  costumes,  244 
1  owneley    plays : 

discussed,       115.      129-30, 

151-56,   159-60.   181-83 
mentioned,   15 
quoted,  115,  129,  137,  186, 
229 


276      CORPUS    CHRISTI    PAGEANTS 


Trades  guilds: 
adaptation    of    plays    to, 

34-36 
assessments,  27 
associate,  23 
attitude  toward  the  plays, 

25 
distinguishing  marks,  23 
fines,  29,  30 
livery,  23 

pageant  control  by.  21 
patron  saint,  35 

Unlocated  scenes,  170-84 
Urban  IV,  Pope,  10 


Valenciennes   Passion, 
Veximiel  Passion,  207 


86n, 


Visions,  203 

Waits,  39-44 
Ward,  A.  W.,  8 
Warton,  T.,  8,  220 
Waterhouse,  O.,   131-32 
Wiclif,  John,  7 

York: 
Corpus  Christi  Guild,  20- 

21 
plays    discussed,    15,    90- 

93,   139-46,   157-59,    162- 

165,    166,    175-76,    18811, 

258 
plays  quoted,  90,  137,  202, 

212-13,  224-25 
quarrel   between   weavers 

and   cordwainers,  65-69 


^%^y^' 


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